Did you get what you wanted for Christmas?

FROM MY FRONT PORCH

Did you get what you wanted for Christmas?

SAM HOUSTON

Sam Houston is the publisher of the Hood County News. He is also an actor, author, playwright, performer and entertainment producer/promoter.

Christmas is a time of joy, but amongst all the gifts, food, and family time, there are parts that can be a real challenge. Most of the challenge centers around gift giving and gift receiving.

Times have changed. Years ago, children would spend hours looking through the JC Penny, Sears, or Montgomery Ward catalogs, searching for just the right item to be added to their Christmas list. Sometimes we would mark the catalog, or we handed the catalog to Mom or Dad and pointed out what Santa should bring us. We never really figured out exactly what telecommunications were necessary for Mom and Dad to contact Santa, but we were confident the message would get through.

It took hours of time and significant analysis for an 8-year-old to determine what they wanted from the catalog. It was important not to “squander” the opportunity to receive a truly special gift. The examination was methodical, and sometimes frustrating getting the catalog away from your brothers and sisters.

Evidently the selection process for gifts has been changed here in the 21^st century, and significantly modernized. There is no more looking through catalogs like I did as a child, but there are alternatives.   More than one person in my family sent a link to an Amazon product as something they wanted. The process was easy and efficient, though it seemed to lack the intimacy of spending hours pouring through a catalog. Maybe I am just being nostalgic. After all, it is the gift that counts, right?

Seems to me like children receive a great many more gifts than they did a generation ago. Do they appreciate opening so many presents?  Seems to me there was something glorious about selecting one or two presents and hoping Santa would show up on Christmas morning. The entire week of Christmas I would wonder if Santa would bring what I had asked for. It was all that was on my mind and consumed my very being.  Do kids still have those sorts of thoughts, or do they know they are going to get almost anything they want?

Of course, there is the frustration of not knowing what to get that someone in your life who is difficult to buy for. There are people who have a Christmas list as long as your leg, and it is easy to select something for them. Then there is the grandfather, or brother or whatever, that simply goes and buys the things they need, and does not really consider someone giving them a gift. I probably fall into that category. If I don’t need it, I really don’t care to have it. I am fortunate, because my family usually comes up with something I like, which I would never go and buy for myself.

Then there are the gifts one receives that are so crazy or in such bad taste, that you would never, ever use or wear it. Some people simply have poor judgement about what to gift, and others simply do not put enough thought into what gift might best suit someone. Right now, I am thinking about the fruitcake a distant relative sends me each year. It is like they fulfill the obligation of sending a gift, but whether I enjoy or like the present, is immaterial. I send them Texas pecans each year and for all I know they may think my gift is as bad as the fruitcake. But then again, they live up north, so what do they know about anything? Who doesn’t like Texas pecans?

I am not even going to get into returning gifts to the store, regifting presents to another, or simply taking the item and leaving it in the gift box and sticking it in a closet. These are all subjects for another time, but surely issues all of us have traversed in our years of celebrations.

The worst thing at Christmas must be giving a small child a practical gift. I know we all need new underwear at one time or the other, but no child wants to get underwear or socks on Christmas morning. Such gifting should be criminal and suffer the consequence of eating the fruitcake I left in my hall closet from last year’s Christmas. Wait, that might be defined as “cruel and unusual punishment.”

I hope you got what you wanted on Christmas morning, and the items you gave away were warmly received by your family and friends. I know I got all I ever wanted by being healthy, having sweet family, friends and coworkers, and able to say I live in Texas. What gift is better than that?

Thought for the day: Christmas is the season when you buy this year’s gifts with next year’s money.

Until next time.

sam@hcnews.com | 817-573-7066, ext. 260