Christmas 2021
Here’s the best family photo (of our family) that I could find:
Winter/Spring 1961
It’s a bit dated, but none of us have really changed all that much, at least at heart. My guess is that in a few years I’ll even be sporting the same hairstyle once again.
If you’re one to follow Dave Barry’s writing, you would know of his annual Christmas gift-guide, one that highlights some of the most unusual potential gift ideas. Unfortunately Dave’s early December deadline causes him to miss some later possible entries. Here are several that have surfaced more recently:
Lawn-Mowing Simulator - This would be great for the gamer/future entrepreneur in your life, or someone you’d like to help prepare for the real thing once the late spring rolls around.
Dental Jewelry - Any one of these might make for a good stocking-stuffer. I can’t imagine what inspired the idea, but if you really want to put on the Ritz, wait for the gold tooth editions to come out.
Then there’s always the gift of entertainment… For an ultra-cool teenager you may know, please assure them that if they live long enough, a seat will be waiting for them toward the back of the geezer bus, and likely alongside some of the true hipsters of yesteryear… Here’s some of what they can look forward to.
All such silliness aside, I’d like to wish you all a joyful Christmas, and will (once again) end my annual Christmas letter with a favorite quote, shared years ago in a sermon by David C. Campbell:
“John [the Apostle] brought in things that didn’t belong so that people whose lives didn’t fit the pattern could celebrate Jesus.
“It makes a kind of sense that someone who spent his life making friends with paupers, prostitutes, publicans, and other pariahs, like Jesus did, should begin his story with tales including those who didn’t fit. Despite our desires and our propaganda, Christmas is not a seamless robe of rich, tasteful, conservative colors. It is made up of things that don’t belong – odd people, odd ideas, all tuned up a little bit and joined together...
“...The patchwork quilt of Christmas is not conventionally attractive, but the lives of many are not conventionally pretty or serene. Some people’s lives have never been nice. Other people’s lives kick over the traces sometimes and turn ugly. Without warning, or deserving, people lose their jobs, their homes, their health, their wives or husbands, their innocence. People like this can’t deal with a holiday that’s all Brooks Brothers and Norman Rockwell, Mother Teresa and saintly graybeards, chamber music and family albums. They need a holiday that’s more like a consignment shop – all kinds of stuff that doesn’t fit, arranged with a smile and a hope.
“The Good News is that’s just the way the New Testament tells the story – street kids on the night shift with the flock, a pregnant, unwed teenager, invitations to offbeat groups.
“It is so close to being funny. It is such good-spirited mockery of our middle-class merchandising and half-hearted hopes that you have to smile at least a little and seek the hands and hearts of those whose lives don’t fit. For Christmas, along with the whole gospel, is especially for them.”
