Me and My Mickey Christmas

Wow!  Christmas time is here!  That's me as a wee one getting reading for my Mickey Mouse Christmas!

Yes, Christmas has definite religious connotations and meaning, and we should not set them aside.

And, yes, Christmas has been over-commercialized. Not just retail, but also in the way we compete  to one up each other on outdoor displays.

I understand all that.

But Christmas is also about families and memories.

My mother loved Christmas.  She loved to see the surprise on our faces when we opened new things.  She loved to decorate the house, and to have treats, and company, and to spread cheer and good will to everybody.

Like everyone else, we had well defined traditions, that live on such that Carol and I still carry them on in our own families.

We opened one present on Christmas Eve, and the rest of the presents were set out by Santa while we were sleeping.  We left Santa some milk and cookies that he would miraculously consume, and we would see just a handful of crumbs and a tiny bit of milk in the morning.

In the early dawn hours, we would roust our parents out of bed, and then see the astonishing array of wrapped presents under the tree, and a stuffed stocking hanging on the fireplace mantle.  We would open the stocking presents, one at a time each taking a turn.  This might take an hour or more.  Then we would stop for breakfast.  After breakfast, we would open the gifts under the tree one at a time, with either Carol or me playing Santa (when we could read), distributing a round of presents to each family member.  The whole process could take hours.

There would be a huge cornucopia of presents.  Most of them were not that spectacular - sometimes they would be separately wrapped pairs of socks or underwear.  In lean years and good years. my mother would do everything she could to make it look like a lot.  But there would always be at least one or two very special presents, showing that "Santa" had gotten our wish list.

I was real big on Mickey Mouse as a toddler.  Disneyland and the Disney Show both started the year I was born, and I grew up with the hype of The Mickey Mouse Club.  so anything Mickey related was a big deal to me.  But I wasn't Mickey Mouse-centric.  I was also a big fan of Mighty Mouse.

There was one year where my sister had forgotten to tell Santa her number one gift...a toy kitchenette set that featured a stove, oven and refrigerator.  She was in tears Christmas Eve.  But my father settled her down, and he encouraged her to reach out one more time to Santa, and hope for the best, telling her to not get her hopes up too high because it was rather late to tell a probably already airborne Santa to add a last minute gift.

But, lo and behold, we got up that morning and surprise!  The kitchenette set was there - front and center.  There was only one conclusion that Carol and I could come to - Santa was real!

My sister and I hang on tight to these traditions, as a way of connecting our own families to the family of our childhood.  And a mother whose eyes lit up every year at the sheer joy of giving.

I had a friend who started looking for and talking about Christmas gifts already.  I was bothered - this is darn early to bring this up!  But without thinking, later that afternoon, I found myself on Westfield Comics, setting my pre-order for stuff that I won't get until December, joyfully picking out presents that Alison and Benjamin would enjoy for Christmas.  It wasn't until I was done that it hit me - I was doing the same thing my friend was!

So is Christmas about the birth of Christ?  Yes.  Is it too early to commercialize Christmas? Probably, yes.  Is it too soon to think about the ones you love and how to make the holiday special for them?

No, it's never too early for that.

Thank you, Mom, for the joy and love you have instilled into this for Carol and me, and that we have passed on to our own families.

We love you.

Always.