Christmas 2012

We're all settled into our beds on this Christmas Eve, and can't help but think that this has been the best Christmas Eve we've had in years.

We have our little tradition down now.  My Dad and I go visit Mom's grave and wish her a Merry Christmas.  We then have lunch together.  The boys go out to lunch and then shopping with my step-mom.  Then we meet up back home.

We order something for delivery, the boys open their one gift, which is always new pajamas, and then baths and PJs.  We decorate gingerbread men, track Santa on Norad, waiting for him to visit our family in Scotland.  We then get our cookies for Santa and shuffle the boys down the hall to read.

This year we were more prepared, we had the presents wrapped already, the stockings filled up.

For a month now, I've been savoring this year as our last year with Santa.  The boys are seven.  It's a miracle that the older kids haven't ruined it for them yet.  But I don't hold out much hope for next year.  So, every little thing I wanted to hit on this year.  My husband and Jamie had a talk about Santa, and he's pretty much figured out that the Santas he's been seeing aren't really Santa.  That Santa is so busy and has so many children to see.

But he surprised us this year.  He wrote a letter he wanted to leave with Santa and his cookies. It said that he was so happy that Santa said he'd visit our house first in WV (from the Google phone call he got), and that he believes in him.

It made me want to cry.

Jamie is so excited about Santa.  And for an Aspie who deals in the black and white, I love that he's gung-ho in believing in Santa.  Iain totally believes, and I love that about the boys.

I hear this song during the holidays every year, and it makes me cry.  As the boys get older, and Santa takes a back burner, the tooth fairy fading into the shadows, Big Bird already a faint memory, Mickey & Company not to be far behind.


Tomorrow we'll awake to squealing children, so happy that Santa visited them, wanting us to come out and see.

And I will do it with a smile, because maybe next year I won't have the magic of Christmas anymore.

Has Society Changed, Or Just Me? Christmas Edition

Christmastime is here, along with all the obligatory airings of shows from our past, to indoctrinate a new generation.

Okay, that sounded harsh.

My husband and I have been laughing over this for the last few days, and I thought I'd pass the question onto you.  Have times/society changed, or have we just grown up?

Example 1:  Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.  This movie is blatantly intolerant.  Rudolph's own father doesn't like him because he doesn't look "normal."  Even Santa is a right bastard toward him.  And Hermie the dentist...  Now that I'm older, I know that dentist is just a euphemism for gay.  But he is berated and made fun of.  So Hermie and Rudolph can't take it anymore and run off.  They go to an island of misfit toys, and are nicely thrown off the island there.  It isn't until Donner goes missing looking for his son, and it inconveniences Santa, and they all return, do they notice that they just might have treated Rudolph and Hermie badly.  Just might no positives.  At and the very end, Santa is about to cancel Christmas because of the storm, and he just makes an announcement saying Rudolph is guiding the sleigh, THEN asks him.  What is Rudolph going to do, say no to the boss?

Example 2:  Rudolph's shiny new year.  Basically another version of Rudolph's make fun of someone because they don't look normal.  They run off because their feelings are hurt, and then when they realize they need him, everyone goes hunting to find them and bring them back.

Example 3:  Jack Frost.  The pretty girl in the village has a crush on the idea of Jack Frost.  He saves her and falls in love and asks to become human so he can be with her.  She takes him in, but keeps him friends only, while talking about how much she cares for him and so forth.  Because.... wait for it, she's in love with the handsome prince.

Example 4:  The Wizard Of Oz.  Glynda, pretty much summed it up by saying only bad witches are ugly.  Umm, I've known some pretty women who are downright ugly on the inside and people who aren't very attractive having the biggest hearts.

Example 5:  The Year Without A Santa Claus.  We are told, and teach our kids that Santa loves the children, and makes the yearly visit to reward good boys and girls.  In this movie, he decides no one appreciates him, so he'll just take a year off.  We're teaching our kids Santa isn't doing it for accolades and presents, and he's shown as wanting them.

Okay, I may have taken these a bit too far.   But I remember watching these movies as a child and loving them.  It's STILL a part of my Christmas tradition and I'm 38.  But things stick out to me now that never did before.

So is it that society has changed since the 60's when these movies were made, or that I'm just grown up and see it for the hypocracy it is?