(In Brooklyn) Hey, whose friggin kid is dis??

WHAT CHILD IS THIS
WHO IS SO BLESSED HE CHANGES ALL TOMORROWS?
REPLACING TEARS WITH REBORN YEARS
IN HEARTS ONCE DARK AND HOLLOW
- Trans-Siberian Orchestra - What Child is this - The Last Christmas


Back in my youth as a young turk growing up in the wilds of exurban New York City, I was exposed to all sorts of lavish holiday displays.

From the house of the Concrete Maven my uncle worked for, which still to this day beats any house I've seen hands down; to the simple grey 2 or 3 story thing (looked more like a prison than a home) that was alongside the Belt Parkway near Springfield Blvd. with his simple strands of the old oversized bulbs draped on the corners of the house, framing it against the dark sky above.

At least he made the effort, and every year - they would be there. Those simple lights.

My own neighborhoods growing up varied wildly in decorating scope, from the austere single electric candle in the window (symbolic of welcoming a stranger home) to the over-large displays of plastic Santa and team on the roof of the house. Bushes covered with more lights than it had branches. Houses which should have been able to pay LiLco's (electric company) operating expenses for a year.

Halloween I was always all about the stark horror, my pumpkins bordering on criminal. But Christmas, I was always the first one ready to put the tree up, the lights outside. I even used to decorate my room, with its single window. I would have had a tree, had I been allowed. Probably for the best I wasn't, as when I hit my teenage years there certainly would have been the rumored small, furry animals living in my room.

I could hardly walk into a church at Christmas without being overcome by the decorations. And I did not like the design of my church growing up - it was more like a barn with pretty windows. Thats the one issue I took with Vatican II (now being old enough to understand it), they should have kept the mandate that churches be built grand. But thats a personal thing.. I dont expect anyone else to get it.

Outside, the snow is falling right now. Things are quiet enough, as everyone waits to see exactly how bad it will get. I was blessed to have a White Christmas before leaving NY. And it was exactly how you wanted it to be. It started snowing around 8pm, and did not let up till the world was white and silent on Christmas morning. Yet you were still able to get the car out without having to dig, the roads were clear by noon from traffic alone, and the snow remained on the ground for days afterwards.

It had to, it went from snow-temperatures down to below zero with the windchill.

I could have done without that part.

But the holidays can be brutal, when you suddenly have no time to accomplish anything, but everything must be done. You do your best to accomplish everything, to perfection and wind up in a transient madness. And by midnight on December 25th, your left empty. Its all over, nothing to do but clean up and wait for the New Year.

In that single moment, the final tick of the clock 11:59:59pm, 12/25 - you lose it. You realize its fully over, and all you did to make it as perfect as you possibly could was just left in that final tick of the clock.

That warm feeling has left you, everything seems the same again. Even the lights on the tree seem cold now. Thats when you have to go back and pull a shred of that warmth out of the past and keep it with you. If it means your family has to suffer through a mild spell of christmas during the summer - then so be it. Ask mine, its been done before.

But that feeling, if you can catch it and carry it with you, will become your greatest asset as the year progresses. If you've ever felt the harsh cold of an empty NYC street in mid-February, or something similar - when desolation seems to be the order, and you feel your the last person on earth, thats when you call upon the fragment of Christmas.

Some people put faith in money, in status, in God.. I put mine in Christmas, and it carrys me through the year.

PS - no page today, busy times but page coming this week. I swear it.