Christmas Remembered

Lileks notes one of the more liberating observations you can make about Christmas:

All Christmases refer back to the Christmases of your early childhood. That’s your baseline, your definition. Mine were warm and happy, which is a blessing and a curse – you love the season, but now you have an unreasonable standard. Everything falls short. It takes a long time to unlearn Christmas and reassemble it for your own – although having kids of your own accelerates the process, makes it easier. Forget your own unrealistic half-remembered expectations; let’s implant the same in the next crop! And when your toddler hugs your leg and says Oh Daddee it’s the best Christmas EVER you know you’re back in the groove.

This ties back to what I wrote yesterday; there's no reason for this to be a depressing season, as long as it's yours, and in the here and now. Christmas when I was a kid was the same thing - nearly perfect. And when I stop trying to make Christmas "nearly perfect", then that's exactly what it becomes.

Posted by Mitch at December 26, 2003 06:07 AM