'Tis The Season To Be Jolly

I don't really celebrate Christmas. Neither do any of my close friends. (Interestingly, I am in touch with quite a few of my friends from college, but none of them are Christians, in spite of the fact that I went to a Christian College.) But I like the general feeling, the atmosphere, the aura it creates. I like the spirit of giving that is associated with this day. I like the festive look that a lot of places acquire at this time of the year.

When we were really little kids, my mom used to tell us stories about Santa Claus and we used to believe them. We used to deck up little, artificial trees and hang up stockings, which our mom and dad would fill up with stuff in the middle of the night. Our mamaji who lives in the US got us a huge Christmas stocking each. One with lots of room for gifts and a little loop to conveniently hang it up by. Boy, did we get a lot of use out of those!

When we were a little older, we'd figured out that there was no Santa, but it was fun to pretend that we still believed in him and hang up our stockings anyway.

For quite a few years now, it's been a tradition for me to sit down in front of the TV and watch a few Christmas Specials. Cartoon Network used to air quite a few of them, and I remember spending six or seven hours watching a whole bunch of them back to back on three or four different Christmas Days. I especially loved it when they aired How The Grinch Stole Christmas!. (The animated version. Somehow I never managed to catch the other one, in which Jim Carrey plays the Grinch.) Or A Garfield Christmas Special. And when one of the movie channels air something nice like Jingle All The Way, I make it a point to catch that too. And, of course, when Pogo aired Shrek The Halls, I was quite delighted to find out that there was a Shrek Holiday Special as well.

I must also mention one more significant thing that I love about this holiday. Christmas cake. It's always lovely. (Unless it is full of raisins.) And it's a nice change from the other cakes that are creamy, heavy, and much sweeter.

Merry Christmas, everyone. Spread the good cheer around.