The holiday bring about a rare occurrence of events. Churches preach both about the dangers of becoming to secularly involved, and about the beauty of unrequited love and gifts, families find themselves in awkward situations that they can't get out of because of the way mom looks at you (no matter how old you are) when you say you can't join in for a family dinner, people find themselves in pinches to get just the right present for a price they can just barely afford, wrap it, ship it, and get it there just in time to set it under a tree until just the right day.
The beauty of this delightful season is the sight of your child's face as she opens the doll house she's been wanting desperately for the past 10 weeks, and watching your husband's nervous expression turn to one of relief and exuberance as he discovers that he really has bought you just the right thing, even though it only cost him $15, and it wasn't exactly what you asked for. There's a certain amount of joy found in revisiting old friends, getting masses of Christmas cards from people you haven't heard from since last year, in tasting mom's old cranberry relish that tastes the same way it did when you were 5, and spending time doing things you wouldn't normally - like having whipped cream fights in the kitchen at 3 in the morning as your cookies burn in the oven.
But there's also the incessant commercials that make you feel like you must get your wife a car for Christmas or you're not a good husband. There's the stress of shopping - no matter how much you love them, obligatory shopping freaks me out. I'd rather give them the present when I see it, just because I thought of them... instead, it looses some degree of meaning when everyone else is getting gifts too. Everyone's efforts to be politically correct overrides the feeling of the season, and creates a certain facade and code that people must abide by. Being around by my family to eat obligatory dinners with old family friends who I never see other than once a year, answering the same questions 12 times, and sitting awkwardly in a chair with nothing to say is draining.
So why? Why don't we keep up with old friends throughout the year? Why must we empty our pocketbooks buying presents for people because society frowns upon us if we don't? I'd rather just stick to the late night whipped cream fights and early morning cookie dough mask on my sister's face....
