Many people speak fondly of an old-fashioned Christmas. A Christmas supposedly of simpler times and clearer values. But, really, an old-fashioned Christmas could be a matter of perspective: one day kids of today may be speaking of what is to them an old-fashioned Christmas, hard as that might be to believe.
But what really is an old-fashioned Christmas? For myself (and perhaps for many others as well) I've envisioned scenes described by my parents and others of earlier generations. Scenes of the Great Depression with very little money or next to none to spare. Where a basket of fruit would be considered exotic and a special treat. I envision handmade decorations and tree ornaments. I envision lighted Christmas displays in only the big or biggest stores in the city and perhaps at City Hall. I envision various sized nativity scenes outside or inside local churches. For some an old-fashioned Christmas might conjure scenes of large family gatherings and friends and families visiting each other. And gift giving was a lot more scaled down to perhaps one or two things per person.
Certainly in an earlier, more economically challenged and frugal time gift giving was a lot easier than today. People had yet to know such a thing as disposable cash and credit as well as an inflated sense of entitlement. There was a time when it was much easier to buy a gift for someone and have a reasonable expectation it would be appreciated simply because most everyone you knew had little. It was easier to buy them something they'd like that they wouldn't buy themselves because they couldn't spare the money. Today it's relatively easy for many of us to go get what we want within a reasonably short period of time. Now we're faced with trying to buy someone something when it seems they already have practically everything they could want.
People talk of Christmas being over commercialized, but in truth that notion has been around for perhaps easily a century and a half. Newspaper articles and letters from the nineteenth century illustrate that clearly.
Christmas of times past are also often set in winters of deep blanketing snow without the luxury of car heaters, remote starters and quickly paved roads, if there were even cars around at all.
So what does an old-fashioned Christmas mean for you?
But what really is an old-fashioned Christmas? For myself (and perhaps for many others as well) I've envisioned scenes described by my parents and others of earlier generations. Scenes of the Great Depression with very little money or next to none to spare. Where a basket of fruit would be considered exotic and a special treat. I envision handmade decorations and tree ornaments. I envision lighted Christmas displays in only the big or biggest stores in the city and perhaps at City Hall. I envision various sized nativity scenes outside or inside local churches. For some an old-fashioned Christmas might conjure scenes of large family gatherings and friends and families visiting each other. And gift giving was a lot more scaled down to perhaps one or two things per person.
Certainly in an earlier, more economically challenged and frugal time gift giving was a lot easier than today. People had yet to know such a thing as disposable cash and credit as well as an inflated sense of entitlement. There was a time when it was much easier to buy a gift for someone and have a reasonable expectation it would be appreciated simply because most everyone you knew had little. It was easier to buy them something they'd like that they wouldn't buy themselves because they couldn't spare the money. Today it's relatively easy for many of us to go get what we want within a reasonably short period of time. Now we're faced with trying to buy someone something when it seems they already have practically everything they could want.
People talk of Christmas being over commercialized, but in truth that notion has been around for perhaps easily a century and a half. Newspaper articles and letters from the nineteenth century illustrate that clearly.
Christmas of times past are also often set in winters of deep blanketing snow without the luxury of car heaters, remote starters and quickly paved roads, if there were even cars around at all.
So what does an old-fashioned Christmas mean for you?
) Then the next morning we all get up to open presents and have breakfast together. (We have an unspoken rule about only one present for each other.) Then we go to my grandparent's house for lunch and to spend the afternoon. We end up having sixty people crammed into this house together! But we have never cared that we can barely move. It is about being together, eating and chatting. I get to see cousins, aunts & uncles, great aunts & uncles, third cousins and so on... or folks I don't normally get to see during the year. My dad's family is very small. And for several years now his mom, his sister and her kids come to join the fun. (Actually dad hated Christmas until he met my mom and her very friendly, very laid back, very prolific southern family.)
