Tuesday, November 30, 2010

To be a kid again

Christmas really isn't much fun these days.  I know, lots of people absolutely live for Christmas.  Not me.  
My favorite thing about this season is the memories, and the magic that Christmas used to be.  
I want to be five years old again.  
Santa Claus was real.  He didn't always bring me every single thing I wanted, but I could count on him to deliver most of it.  The only time he really let me down was when he failed to deliver that pony, but of course he probably couldn't fit it in his sleigh.  
When he came bursting through the door at the back of the one-room schoolhouse at the end of our Christmas program, ringing a bell and saying "Ho ho ho", I had no doubt he was the real deal.  I never even noticed the bell he was ringing was the same one the teacher rang every day to signal the end of recess.  
I didn't know about calories.  I could eat all the brown sugar candy and nuts and fruit cake I desired without any guilt, and my mother provided plenty of goodies for my consumption.  Not only that, she let me eat all of it I wanted, at any time.  
Oh, I wish you could have seen the Christmas trees we had.  Artificial trees hadn't been invented yet, and the piney fragrance of our real Christmas trees affected me in the same way that catnip affects a cat.  I still demand a real Christmas tree, mainly for the memories.  The smell only seems to last a few days, but it's good while it lasts.  We don't have huge piles of presents like the old days, but we do have the tree.
I remember magazines people gave my mom for Christmas called "Christmas Ideals".  I could look at the pictures and stories in those magazines for hours.  A few years ago I got on Ebay and ordered a couple of the issues I remembered from my childhood.  For the memories.  
There was a special magic about the simple Christmas programs in country churches, so that when little kids wearing their mom's bathrobes walked down the aisle toward the front, I saw them as real shepherds and wise men.  And that doll in the manger?  I almost expected him to cry. 
I wish I could be five years old again, young enough to sit on my momma's lap and enjoy it, back before I developed that attitude that drove a wedge between the two of us for most of the rest of our lives.
I want to wake up Christmas morning and see my stocking stuffed with all kinds of fun stuff, an orange bulging in its toe.  
When you're five years old there are no worries, because you're perfectly taken care of.  You don't know about politics or wars or "these tough economic times".  
Momma and Daddy will take care of all that.  
And what they don't provide, Santa will.
    

12 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love this post; there are so many things that I remember about Christmas that are so different now. I miss my grandparents and my two younger brothers. It seems like it's all about the glitz, the shopping, the gifts, the lights and the commercial aspects and not so much about the fun stuff. It doesn't help that I hate to shop and dislike crowds. Luckily, I'm already finished, mostly over the internet and at restaurants. (gift cards for my parents, who love an excuse to eat out)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Very nice entry. I don't get all hyped up on any holiday but I guess New Year is my favorite as I always think of it as a fresh start and I don't know where it will lead.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. My thoughts are much like yours this Christmas. The no guilt calories, a real tree, Christmas stocking. Mine had an orange too but Santa put a can of black olives in there too! And I don't know about being five again, but oddly enough I would like to be in my thirties again just for one Christmas, just so I could have my Mom back again. I found out in my thirties that she was a pretty cool gal and we worked out that wedge. She loved Christmas. I miss her. Great post Donna.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I agree totally! Wonderful memories!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I hope you are better and did you decide what made you ill?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Patsy, I haven't been sick. You must be confusing me with somebody else.

    ReplyDelete
  8. oh for gosh sake I just clicked on Judy's site and realized that it was the the kentucky kid that was ill. i am old and it is early.

    ReplyDelete
  9. You just posted exactly what my thoughts are. Christmas is all about the memories. Crazy as this may sound, just the other day I was trying so hard to smell the smell that my stocking smelled like, that magical oder that happened only once a year. Vicki

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous11:31 AM

    I'm not exactly the Holiday Joyful type(big surprise, I am sure), but I do take names of small children in the area who need toys and then I shop for them...it is amazing how much that can put you in the spirit. ~Mary

    ReplyDelete
  11. You reminded me of a time that my grandpa (Orel) told me one night he saw Rudolph's red nose and heard jingle bells over the pants factory where he was working (I think). Anyway, I remember that and believed it for years and even now sometimes I want to believe it is true.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I think you hit the nail on the head with your observation that getting carried away with Christmas is childlike. I used to be one of those people who overdid the whole Christmas "thing." Now my focus is on my other dream from childhood - horses - and Christmas has definitely taken a backseat.
    I guess some of us refuse to ever grow up.

    ReplyDelete

I love comments!