Charlie Brown’s Christmas

The Christmas buying season has seemingly been extended, adding some new stress to my Christmas lists. With those pre-dawn, store-stopping bargains, Black Friday is starting so close to turkey dinner I’m afraid there won’t be time for dessert.

I almost thought I was going crazy when I turned on my car radio just after Halloween and heard “White Christmas” blaring out of my speakers.

Am I now to consider myself too old fashioned because I like to have my dinner with all of the trimmings before dreaming of a white Christmas? I read someplace that the retail goal was to get consumers to spend as much as possible before winter heating bills come in. This news started me thinking about my idea of Christmas and holiday traditions that I enjoy.

There were years that my children could not get fancy computerized gadgets. One of the most meaningful holidays that I remember was one that my kids got love and a kitten; I got a gift of an oil delivery from some unknown neighbor on Christmas Eve when I was out of time, money and ideas.

No one has to remind me of how important it is to stay warm long before the thrill of unwrapping gifts is gone. I guess I am of the Charlie Brown Christmas generation.

In my home when I was a child, there was just no speaking of Christmas lists until after the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. The night of the Christmas-tree lighting in Rockefeller Center was the kick-off. Mom and Dad would sit us all around the television with cheese and crackers while we watched ice-skaters glide into the night. All eyes were on that magic button, for once pressed we knew that “A Charlie Brown Christmas” would come on and we could all look through the Sears’ wish book and circle a favorite toy or two.

Santa would magically choose five gifts, wrapped in shiny paper … never more, since the world was full of children, and we had to share. When Christmas Day came, it was always magical and as I remember it, my folks must have paid their fuel bill first because it was always warm and toasty in our family’s living room.

Today, it’s just so different. My little nieces faxed me a copy of their letters to Santa who, I have been told by an elf, will deliver to them five carefully chosen gifts.

I’m thankful that “A Charlie Brown Christmas” was written when I was a kid because I have to wonder, if Charles Shultz were alive today, what that classic would be like.

Would Charlie Brown have found Christmas wrapped around some serious commercialism? Would Schroeder play music that he had down loaded to his i-Pod? Guess he wouldn’t need a silly wooden toy piano.

Would little Sally still want her “fair share?” Would she have taken all her pennies out of her piggy bank and invested them in real estate?

Would Linus carry a wonderful, almost new blanket that was specially ordered from the leather-bound edition of Cabela’s Fall Catalog at a $100 value?

Would Lucy have set up her psychiatrist’s stand in a remake of Trump Tower, especially since she was older and smarter than Sally? Would she have already made a killing in real estate or in Martha Stewart stock?

I guess that Snoopy’s decorating would not only light up his doghouse. He would definitely need one of those giant snow globes that have fake snow churning around inside of it. And that, of course, leaves us with good old Charlie Brown. He could probably just go online to e-Bay with his debit card and conjure up an old-fashioned Christmas tree.

It all makes me really thankful that my kids are still okay with love, and I am really good with paying for heat.