Thursday, December 07, 2006

Christmas Comes Too Fast

I have decided that is part of the whole Christmas problem. If just comes too fast! Even with Christmas starting back in September, it still comes too fast.

When I was young, Christmas would never come. The anticipation would be almost deadly. The time from Thanksgiving to Christmas would last so long. Christmas would never come. And then there was Christmas Eve, the longest night in the history of kiddom.

The anticipation of childhood is no longer there. The magic of Christmas is no longer there. It doesn't take forever for Chirstmas to get here. Christmas comes too fast.

I miss that expectation, that anticipation. I miss the wait. As a child, the wait is pure possibility. Santa could bring anything. Although I couldn't name it at the time, the present under the tree was almost better than the present opened. Once the present was opened, the possibility was ended and the reality began.

But that time up to the opening of the presents, that time was wide open. The present could be a race track, or an Erector set, or a game. Just speculating was magic.

Now, the possibilities are so much more circumscribed. I can't be anything. The boxes do not hold the unimaginable. And I guess I miss that.

I don't know why the meloncholy, I guess I just must be getting the post Christmas blues early. Even that comes too fast.

3 comments:

Old Pastor said...

You have the start of an outstanding Advent sermon there...and don't worry -- there will be at least one surprise under the tree for you to open. So anticipate that. But I agree about the shift from kiddom to "grown up dom". Ah, for the youth we have lost.

Ur-spo said...

i agree.

Lemuel said...

there are many of us out there for whom the magic has long gone. I've found my meaning for the season in my faith. The cultural crap has long since lost any luster. If I think of that stuff, I get really depressed.