The Tiny Christmas Town

The second you carve a Turkey, an Elf begins laying out his reds and greens. His wife begins pressing the pointy hat, so it points straight up signifying North: his residence and place of work. The world prepares in all of its trimmings for a month of purchasing.

Part of me has always rejected America's Big Industry preying on the individual's sense of sparkled tradition— old and new. As a result, you'll know you have received a gift from me; it will be wrapped in construction paper or the Family Circus or an article about the new exhibit in the MOMA or People's magazine. Yet, on a Christmas where my daughter will be 6-months, I can't help but wander the stores picking up little elf ornaments and figurines to decorate the house.

Despite my turbulent childhood, my mother put up a tree. She sat us down with a box of Kix to string for garland while she sprayed fake snow along the edges of our basement apartment windows. She bought popsicle sticks for us to transform into snowflake ornaments. A big stuffed Santa sat on a dusty arm chair in the living room while we ran around the cramped quarters.

As my step-father mounted himself on the couch with his traditional line of Budweiser cans, Mom lined up tiny porcelain houses with tiny porcelain families on top of our small entertainment center. Before the S-Dad came home from work, I'd set up in front of that little town. Two friends played in a mound of fake snow. A light lit up a Ma and Pop Grocer. I imagined the Father inside the open windowed home to be fixing hot cocoa. Maybe, I thought, he was helping with homework. Maybe he was just hugging his children. Maybe he was just...there. This world, which only surfaced during holiday cheer represented the wholesome world many of us crave.

I probably don't have to explain how it's media and the marketer's job to exploit nostalgia and the need for a glistening tradition. This is —I'm sure— something we are all aware of. Yet, it may not matter.

Tradition isn't a made up theory contrived from the MAN (Marketers And Networks). It exists because the tie to family is real. I want my daughter to associate the smell of pine to stringing cereal decorations or wearing big fuzzy mittens.

We deserve it.

This little month in the collection of twelve, helps define the meaning of family in a life. This is not to say it has to mimic the traditions of the porcelain family atop my childhood entertainment center. Hell, I hope this Christmas creates a tradition of eating dessert for lunch or making snow cones from the front lawn.

As long as Rylee sees the investment of Christmas not as a collection of toys but of quirks that make her holiday season unique to this family... as well as universal, to share the joy with others.

With a big ribbon,
A