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As the Christmas season passes us by again, I can't help but think to myself that the significance of the celebration, ie. Christmas morning, has diminished a lot in the last 10-15 years.
Back when I was a small child, everyone had huge extravagant setups and parents would spend hours in line for weeks preceding to get just the right toy or game. Still happens to some familys, obviously, but at least to my perception, the celebration has been relegated mostly to the distribution of gift cards and impersonal greeting cards. You'd be better off giving a Christmas card to the UPS/FedEx man, since he's the one actually giving people 90% of their presents these days.
Preface taken care of, that doesn't say that we can't reminisce about the times where we had exceptionally stunning memories. Maybe you got especially taken by surprise by a gift once in the past, or set up an elaborate surprise for someone else.
As for me, I think the most memorable Christmas for me is not related to the gifts, or hardly even the holiday season. It was 3 years ago. For every year of my life, and the large majority of my parents lives, my grandfather had set up very elaborate decorations and presentations every Christmas time. There was always something unique that all of the neighbors and friends had to see. The house was always the best on the block, the inside was decked from roof to floor. Only the best wrapping paper and the most expensive tree in the warehouse.
Unfortunately, he was diagnosed with an incurable form of skin cancer earlier that year, and the therapies had by that point ravaged him to the point where he was very weak. He was very sad, because for probably close to 50 years by that point had been the sole decorator of the house, and he knew that it was going to be his last Christmas. I was determined to make sure that it would be the most extravagant one he had ever seen.
I and some friends went out and amassed a collection that the White House celebration would be jealous of. We spent nearly a month decorating every inch of the house, inside and out. We spent probably near $3000 on everything. In an ironic twist of fate, he passed away only 4 days after Christmas that year. The last thing that he told me was how touched he was to see the house so well decorated, this time watching from the outside. I've not decorated the house since then, because the house in question was his home of over 40 years. Aside from that one special occasion, that was his house to decorate. Not mine.
You can be for sure, though, that whenever I get myself a house, and maybe a family of my own, that the torch has been passed.
Sorry, that was a little long. But I hope that I might have been able to inspire you to post something of your own.
Merry Christmas everyone. :biggrin:
Back when I was a small child, everyone had huge extravagant setups and parents would spend hours in line for weeks preceding to get just the right toy or game. Still happens to some familys, obviously, but at least to my perception, the celebration has been relegated mostly to the distribution of gift cards and impersonal greeting cards. You'd be better off giving a Christmas card to the UPS/FedEx man, since he's the one actually giving people 90% of their presents these days.
Preface taken care of, that doesn't say that we can't reminisce about the times where we had exceptionally stunning memories. Maybe you got especially taken by surprise by a gift once in the past, or set up an elaborate surprise for someone else.
As for me, I think the most memorable Christmas for me is not related to the gifts, or hardly even the holiday season. It was 3 years ago. For every year of my life, and the large majority of my parents lives, my grandfather had set up very elaborate decorations and presentations every Christmas time. There was always something unique that all of the neighbors and friends had to see. The house was always the best on the block, the inside was decked from roof to floor. Only the best wrapping paper and the most expensive tree in the warehouse.
Unfortunately, he was diagnosed with an incurable form of skin cancer earlier that year, and the therapies had by that point ravaged him to the point where he was very weak. He was very sad, because for probably close to 50 years by that point had been the sole decorator of the house, and he knew that it was going to be his last Christmas. I was determined to make sure that it would be the most extravagant one he had ever seen.
I and some friends went out and amassed a collection that the White House celebration would be jealous of. We spent nearly a month decorating every inch of the house, inside and out. We spent probably near $3000 on everything. In an ironic twist of fate, he passed away only 4 days after Christmas that year. The last thing that he told me was how touched he was to see the house so well decorated, this time watching from the outside. I've not decorated the house since then, because the house in question was his home of over 40 years. Aside from that one special occasion, that was his house to decorate. Not mine.
You can be for sure, though, that whenever I get myself a house, and maybe a family of my own, that the torch has been passed.
Sorry, that was a little long. But I hope that I might have been able to inspire you to post something of your own.
Merry Christmas everyone. :biggrin:
