By Louie Ferrera

It’s December 26, Christmas is finally over. All of the major holidays begin and end on their designated day. Thanksgiving, New Years, Halloween…etc they’re all one and done. Sure, there is a lead up to each of these days, but the actual celebrations last just the one day. On Thanksgiving, families gather, you have a feast, you drink, you watch football, you go to bed stuffed from overeating. The next day it’s all over. A turkey carcass in the fridge and empty wine bottles on the counter are the only evidence that a holiday had occurred. Kids trick or treat on October 31. The calendar is flipped and suddenly it’s November. All that remains are a few smashed pumpkins and those ridiculous inflatable ghosts and ghouls on people’s front lawns. By November 2, most of those are gone too. Nothing happens on July 3 or July 5. January 2 is just the second day of the year. Hanukah lasts eight days…but it’s supposed to. When the last candle has burned down, the menorah and dreidel are packed away until next December.

But Christmas, oh Christmas has a season. Many retail outlets, especially the “big box” stores, begin putting out Christmas merchandise and decorations in September. We were subjected to Walmart Christmas ads during the World Series at the end of October. The more than two month barrage of advertising and marketing is absolutely relentless and nearly impossible to avoid. It’s a slow creep until Christmas iconography looms over everything. Like Big Brother, Santa’s image is everywhere. After all, he saw you when you were sleeping and he knew when you were awake long before Google and Facebook did. And Christmas music? Now that’s a real mixed bag. Is there anything more joyful than Sleigh Ride by The Ronnettes? Anything more insipid than Last Christmas by Wham? Christmas itself is a mixed bag where joy and melancholy walk hand in hand. No song expresses this sentiment better than Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas.

Most of this madness has less to do with the actual joys of Christmas and everything to do with the bottom line. One can hardly blame the ever vanishing mom and pop stores for wanting to cash in on Christmas. But the massive corporations? Don’t they make enough money the other 364 days of the year? It’s corporate greed, plain and simple.

The entire holiday season just goes on too damn long. I see cars driving around with fir trees tied to their roofs on Thanksgiving Day. When I walk around my neighborhood in mid January at night many houses are still ablaze with Christmas decorations. And don’t get me started on those outlandish, over the top front lawn displays, each house trying to one up the other. Whatever happened to a simple wreath and a string of lights? The excess makes me want to go into exile for two months. I once saw a lit Christmas tree in someone’s front window on February 2. I wonder what the groundhog would think if he emerged from his burrow and saw that?

Ok, if you’ve read this far I know what some of you are thinking, enough with the ranting. Names like Scrooge and Grinch have crossed your lips. I know I’m not alone though. More than a few of you must share my sentiments. Christmas can be a really sweet time of year but I want to celebrate it in my own time and on my own terms, not when Target or Disney tell me that I should. No wonder people often feel depressed this time of year.

Of course, there’s another side to all of this. Christmas as a kid is simply magical. Many of my fondest childhood memories are centered around the holidays. But as I grew up and Santa morphed into my mom and dad, Christmas lost most of its luster. I continued to celebrate Christmas but it’s not the same as an adult. All of that changed once I became a parent. When our kids were old enough to understand, I began to see Christmas through their eyes. The birth of our two children coincided with my switch from a fourth grade to a first grade teacher. Besides my own kids, I now had twenty others with that Christmas glow on their faces. I once had a student of mine ask, “Are Santa’s reindeer real?” I think you know how I answered that one. Not only were his reindeer real, but so was Santa and his elves and his workshop at the North Pole. Seeing the joy and wonder that my kids were experiencing reminded me that Christmas was about more than spending money and gift giving. Of course we give gifts to the kids and ourselves but our most treasured holiday traditions have nothing to do with shopping and spending money.

Every year we’d join our community for the tree lighting in the town square. Santa would ride in on the back of a fire truck. Our kids were usually first in line to greet him. We’d skate around the enormous Christmas tree at center ice inside Snoopy’s Home Ice. Together with our kids we’d glide across the ice, the arena bathed in the red, green, silver and gold lights of Christmas. It was cold and wintry and absolutely enchanting. We’d always take a family photo in front of the tree. One year we made ornaments from used wine corks. The stack of our favorite Christmas books would be read and reread. Of course on Christmas Eve we’d leave a plate of cookies and a glass of milk by the fireplace for Santa. The reindeer would get a carrot.

But alas, our kids are about to turn twenty. Like in Polar Express, they can no longer hear that sleigh bell ring. Carol and I are now Santa. Christmas has come full circle. The wheel continues to turn.

Meanwhile, in a few days our tree will come down. I’ll drag it into our backyard, remove the branches and store the trunk inside our shed. Next Christmas Eve, I’ll saw that trunk into small sections. With The Polar Express on the tv, each of us will feed our section into the fireplace. The logs will crackle in the fire, casting a glow on our smiling faces. It’s for this kind of sweet family tradition that Christmas is worth celebrating.