Deck the halls and walls and floor and cars and dog and driveway and lawn!

Christmas is a beautiful time. It's a time of giving, of peace, of laughter. It's a time for families to come together. It's a time to sing out our gratitude for what we've been given. Christmas is a time for warm fires, soft lights, and friendly company. It's a time for reflection and sweet contemplation. Christmas is a time of love.

Christmas is also a manic time. It's a time for shopping ravenously until your feet throb, and coming home from these shopping trips with only one more person crossed off your list.
It's a time of spiteful laughter as YOU snatch the LAST Panasonic S-700 BluRay player off the shelves at Wal-Mart, and the loser behind you has nothing to do but TRY AGAIN somewhere else!! Haha!
Christmas is a time for shaking snow out of your ears and eye sockets and waterproof boots (manufacturer's guarantee?! I think not!) when you come in from a difficult trek to the mailbox. It's a time for sitting down with miles of wrapping paper, tape and a permanent marker, only to realize that the present you just sat down to wrap is in the car! And when you finally have tackled the first step of wrapping, your finger is in position and you're ready to tape it down, your tape has dissappeared! So you look around you and, realizing you probably sat on it, get up awkwardly whilst keeping your finger diligently placed on the paper. This is when you realize that you DID NOT, in actuality, sit on your tape, but when you find it, you see that no matter what angle you try, the tape is inches out of your reach. So you are forced to let go, the edges of the paper gently float to the floor, exactly where they started, and you get to start over.

Someone once told me that if you use more than three (3!) small pieces of Scotch tape to wrap a present, you are doing it wrong.
Well! What if I'm just nervous and want to make my gift-wrap extremely secure?! What if my relative/friend has an affinity for gifts that are impossible to open?! What if I just want to see how far that little roll really can go?! What if I just happen to be wrapping an oddly shaped package of Brie cheese or an enormous jar of pickles?! Ever think about that, Fiend of Stepford?!
Didn't think so.

Now, I'm no Grinch. I absolutely love Christmas. I love the sounds, the smells, the lights, and the family time. I do, however, think that we have taken this commercial thing too far. I remember being 7 or 8, and still blissfully unaware of the real identity of Santa Claus. I remember almost bursting with anticipation when I went to sleep on Christmas eve. That anticipation stayed around even after I figured it out. I still made my Christmas lists in the first week of November, and I even decorated my room once with the leftover decorations my mom wasn't using.
Now, that childlike attitude toward Christmas has faded, and I don't see it in anyone over 10. This is very sad. I wish we could all come back to that, and instead of exhausting ourselves to get everything done, just relish in the feeling of Christmas. This year, let's all sit back and breathe in the warm, delicious smells of the season. Let's giggle when we see mistletoe on a doorway and yell "RUDOLPH!!" if we happen to see a helicopter's light on Christmas eve...even if there are no kids around. Let's hug our families and wish strangers a Merry Christmas and wear Santa hats to work and admire the way the sun makes the snow sparkle. Merry Christmas, all.
Girl16.