Wednesday, December 2, 2009
8:35 PM
Cherished Tradition
Obviously people are the most important part of our human Christmas traditions. Most of us have a hard time finding Christmas once a parent or sibling is no longer living and able to share the season with us. I know that I have struggled very, very much to find the Christmas spirit of my youth ever since my dad went home to be with Jesus. I'm not sure I'll ever recapture the full magic that I once knew without him here. But that's another post entirely.
For Prince Kit and I, one of the tangible things most important to our yearly quest for Christmas spirit is the traditional Christmas cartoon specials that have aired yearly ever since we were tiny children. Back before cable and multiple channels, etc. all of the homes in my city had only one television channel that worked all of the time. There were a couple of others but as I've discussed before, all of the planets had to be perfectly aligned for them to work even a little bit so we usually didn't even bother. So with only one channel, and with the shorter television schedules of that era, we only got one chance each year to see these priceless Christmas specials and if you missed them, it was just too bad. They were never, ever repeated until the following year. For that reason, I, and most of the other kids I knew, considered these specials to be epic television events. I don't know if he'll admit it now or not, lol, but Bernie loved watching these, too. He and Linda watched them with me even after they were married. Bit I digress. LOL
As soon as Thanksgiving was over, we would start scouring the weekly t.v. guides for air times. We wrote them down and memorized them and we asked our parents not to schedule anything on the nights when they were to be aired because VCR's didn't yet exist and we couldn't stand the thought of missing one of these amazing classics.
When I was in the 7th grade (that's right - jr. high!) I was dating a boy with whom I was completely and totally, head-over-heels in love. (Or at least, I THOUGHT it was love at the time, lol) I was CRAZY about him. However, one December night, when we had plans to attend a basketball game together, I stood him up at the last minute because I found out late that afternoon that "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" was coming on television that night. LOL Oh yeah. Clearly, I was really in love with him as is evidenced by my willingness to drop him like a pancake at the first mention of a Santa television appearance. LOL David Hundley just couldn't compete with Santa Claus. I went home and watched the show that night and enjoyed it just as much as I had when I was 10 years younger. David and I broke up the next day because he was upset at me for standing him up. I understood but considered the outcome totally worth the price I had been forced to pay because I could see David anytime but SCICTT only made one visit per year and I was glad that I hadn't missed it. LOL
Prince Kit, the princesses and I STILL love those beloved cartoon specials. Thankfully, we now own all of them on VHS or DVD so we are no longer at the mercy of the television programmers when we want to see them. Every year, when we clear a spot and bring in the tree, we put a tape of them on and begin the long-anticipated decorating endeavor. As I type this, there are less than 160 days left until tree trimming time in our house and we can't wait.
Jesus is, and always will be the real reason for the season, but if there had been television sets back when He was a kid, I feel certain He would have loved watching these sweet little shows as much as we do. LOL