Christmas Wishes

     It's only December 2nd and already my son is on my nerves about his Christmas wish list. According to him, his sisters get everything and he NEVER gets anything (except the PSP Go, electric guitar, new bike, three versions of something that resembles a skateboard, not to mention as much food as he cares to eat, enough clothes to wear, his own room, and a safe, clean place to live WITH loving parents, I might add). Which brings me to the question, why are we celebrating Christmas, I'm not even Christian! 

     My mom told me the reason we got a Christmas tree was because my brother asked her why we didn't have one when all the other kids in his kindergarten class did. Which makes me wonder why my sister, who is 5 years older never asked for one, and was she to blame for me missing out on at least 3 years of potential presents?

     We had a plastic tree that comes in parts, a stand, two stems, branches in sizes A to F and a piece that goes on top. My mother never believed in killing trees in order to celebrate anything, and I must say, the tree is still one of the more realistic ones I've seen on the market, and is still in good shape 40 years later. So every year we put together this plastic tree, decorated it, and put presents underneath. No church, no Christmas dinner, no reading the story of baby Jesus. Just presents and some Indian food, and then a whole day of playing with the new toys. 
     When we were younger and we had relatives near by, we'd celebrate with my cousins, depending on who was fighting with who, and who was or wasn't talking to each other. One year my aunt bought all the kids the same present - wooden jewelry boxes - EVEN for the boys! There must have been a blue light special at Kmart going on that day.

     I ended up marrying a Christian, who even after 10 years of required religion class in grade school, still doesn't know a darned thing. But he loves chocolate at Easter and he loves presents at Christmas. Something my kids inherited, apparently. Over here in Germany, we also celebrate Nikolaus on Dec. 6th - St. Nick's birthday, by putting our shoes outside at the door at night, and in the morning, find them filled with chocolate and goodies (a.k.a. nuts and mandarin oranges). Sometimes, if your parents can swing it, they hire Nikolaus to come by and give you presents in person. If I could afford it I'd go with option #2, because food does not belong anywhere near anybody's shoes, especially not the way my kid's feet sweat. That's just plain nasty.
     But I do it, I gotta get my kids something on the 6th, just like all the other kids, and then apparently there are more presents brought by the "Christkind" or Christchild who comes to visit you on the 24th at 6pm after church, and then you sleep in on the 25th and do nothing but eat with your family, and there are no presents involved (although my son claims eating his grandma's Sauerbraten is like having Christmas all over again). The 26th is the second day of Christmas, another day off from work and another day where all the stores are closed, but I still don't know what you're supposed to do that day, or why it's important. My sister-in-law generally has plans on that day that we're not involved in, so we just drive home.
     No Santa Claus, no elves, no Rudolf (except when they rerun old American movies on tv) and definitely no Black Friday. Even after 3 years out of the land of consumerism my 10 year old can't decide on a present that he wants that costs less than $300. Oh wait, he's got a suggestion - a new cellphone! Followed by the question, "Can we return the one I got two months ago?" God help me survive the season.