Scrooge....

Christmas used to be such a wonderful time. I remember as a child, that that was the time the whole family got together. My uncle and them used to leave Pretoria the day after school closed for the December holidays and they would stay with us until New Year. This meant lots of shopping trips and spending days at the beach. I remember having real Christmas trees in the lounge and there were so many presents under it, that it took hours for Santa to hand out all the goodies. Yes, we had a Santa every year and we all got a turn to be Santa's helper. I remember the smell of the pine needles and still finding needles stuck in the lounge carpet weeks after Christmas. I remember my uncle feverishly working in the kitchen. He was a fantastic chef and was always in charge of the meat preparations. My mom, aunt and Granny made all the salads and veggies and desserts. We used to wait until 24h00 on Christmas Eve and then Santa would arrive and we could open presents. Those were still the days that receiving a wristwatch was an ultimate gift. Granny always used to give us underwear. We were by no means wealthy, but I remember that everybody who attended the Christmas tree used to buy gifts for everybody else. We used to get pocketmoney and had to use that to buy our gifts. One year, my brother got clever and bought slabs of chocolate for everyone and put the rest of the money in his pocket. He showed signs back then of a budding entrepreneur. We used to sing carols and knew what the meaning of Christmas was.

Oh boy, how things have changed. I am sitting with lists as long as my arm as to what gifts the children all want. Never mind the fact that we have 4 birthdays in our immediate family between now and Christmas. It ranges from playstation games to clothes(all branded of course) to cellphones(they all have perfectly good phones) and it just gets worse after that. What to do, what to do? I don't suppose the children will be happy with new underwear and socks. Mind you, I pulled that trick on the 2 bigger boys last year. I gave them a parcel with 2 boxers in each and you should have seen their faces. I left them like that for a while and later on gave them the actual gifts. The relief was so apparent.

How do we uncommercialize Christmas again? How do we get it back to the beautiful time of sharing and giving? How do we get families around a table again feasting on goodies and popping Christmas Crackers and just remembering the true origins of the day? I won't even go the church question route, because that is a whole other subject on its own.

I want to smell the pine needles again. I want to watch my uncle busy in the kitchen. I want to see the delight on my Granny's face for receiving a little glass frog I gave her for Christmas. Do you know that when my Gran passed away 4 years ago, that little glass frog was returned to me? It is sitting on my desk staring at me. She had written all our names at the bottom of gifts we gave her over the years and upon her death, her instructions were for all to be returned to the person who originally gave it to her. She had kept every little thing we ever gave her. That is the Christmas I want to have again...




instead of feeling like Scrooge....