It is two days before Christmas...this is really the first year that I have not been sneaking to the stores to get that last minute gift(s) like I have done in the past. For several years I only went shopping on one day...Christmas Eve. The upside of that was that no one had a chance to shake the box and try to guess what their gift might be. The other upside was that I saved quite a bit on wrapping paper in this manner as well. But there is something satisfying about having the gifts either made or bought before December rolls around.
I will not rant this year about how Christmas has become so "commercialized." We already know all that. But one fact I learned about commercialization of Christmas is about old Santa Claus himself. If the sources are correct, Santa Claus wore either a green or brown suit right up to the time Coca Cola began its Christmas marketing campaigns. I have not run across the year exactly, but it was well before the turn of our current century. It seems that the Coca Cola artists were told to work Santa into the Coke ads. Viola, the Jolly Old Elf changed his wardrobe overnight. Sporting his now famous red coat and red pants with the white trim, and wearing his long, bright white beard, our familiar Saint Nick made his Christmas debut taking a long swallow of Coca Cola.
Locally, many good Samaritans are making Christmas bright for less fortunate people in the area. The Midland Sheriff's Office held a fundraising drive. They were able to raise enough money to take forty-one children shopping to the tune of one hundred dollars each. The Rough Riders in Odessa raised funds and were able to take toys to the children in hospitals in Odessa to help insure the children had a better Christmas than they might have had otherwise. Blue Santa is working overtime, and many groups are providing Christmas meals for those in the area who may need a good meal that day.
For me, I am happy just being around and seeing the joy of Christmas time. We (spouse and I) are by no means wealthy or "rich" but we have reached that point where a box of home-made candy or a jar of fresh prickly-pear jelly is appreciated as much as any "gift." The better part of Christmas now is seeing the kids having fun with their new toys, and greeting the people we have not seen in some time.
I said I would not rant about Christmas Commercial, but I have to throw this one in. A news anchor on one of the channels produced a chart that showed the cost of buying all the gifts mentioned in "The Twelve Days of Christmas," from the partridge in a pear tree to the twelve drummers drumming. It seems that if one were to purchase the gifts mentioned or rent the services of the performers involved, in today's dollars the cost would be nearly four hundred thousand dollars. Quite a sum considering the food for the party has not been ordered yet.
By the way, hello to Italy!
So if you have not purchased all your gifts, go on to the stores, but don't get in a big rush. You still have a day and a half. They won't close the doors until everyone in line has paid for all their stuff. If you ARE finished with your shopping, or you will just buy gifts for the ones you missed after the New Year, just relax and listen to the children out playing with their pre-Christmas presents. And be glad that, unlike myself, you will not be mistaken for that Jolly Old Elf as you walk around the stores or the mall.
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