While we haven’t been really festive or made a point to truly enjoy the wonderful Christmas season all that much here at the Circle, that shouldn’t be interpreted at apathy or a lack of Christmas spirit. If anything, we here at NC are Christmas fanatics. I have a 6 foot tree in my tiny apartment. Do you know how much room a 6 ft tree takes up in a Manhattan apartment? It’s called commitment to the Christmas spirit folks, and my bite matches my bark. But Christmas has changed over the years, not in terms of how awesome it is, but in terms of my approach. When I was little, Christmas day was the best part of the season; I got a ton of presents, ate delicious food, saw my family and just had a blast. Now, it’s the worst day because it means I have to go back to work soon. The past 15 years or so have really changed the holiday, not necessarily for the worse, but drastically different. So that’s what I’m going to really try and bring to light; the differences between Christmas when you’re 10 years old and when you’re 25.
Excitement:
When I was 10 years old, Christmas Eve was like Chinese water torture. I couldn’t get to sleep; I’d be up all night thinking about the awesome presents I was going to crush the next morning. If I could’ve gotten a hard-on, I would’ve had an 8-hour boner. If you weren’t like this on Christmas Eve, you’re either Jewish or a liar. You would wake up in the middle of the night and make your little brother sneak a peak to see if Santa Claus had come. Then, come 7ish, you would thunder down the stairs only to erupt in happiness, ripping any wrapping paper in sight to shreds while marveling at all the sweet gifts you got that year. It didn’t even need to be great gifts; I would be so excited that boxes covered in wrapping paper would have sufficed.
Currently, my Christmas Eve starts with me waking up early, going to work, and then hustling to catch a train home so I can drink with my family. Anyone else notice that that’s what holiday’s become as you get older? Just an excuse to get drunk with your family? I’m not complaining it just seems to lack the zip it had during my youth. As expected there are no more midnight Santa checks or 7 am wake ups. Instead you sleep until noon, wake up hung-over and have a cup of coffee and pancakes before even glancing at the tree Christmas morning.
Gifts:
Back in the day, it was Christmas gifts, plural. You would roll downstairs on Christmas morning to a stack taller than you were. A sweet Lego set? Check. Super Nintendo? Awesome. New baseball glove? Why the fuck not. It was never ending. Your Christmas list was always 98 things long, and you usually got most of them. Except of course for the occasional child-irrationality impossible gift like a pony, or to move to Hawaii or something like that.
Now my list is two things long, usually socks for work and a new scarf. I’m excited when I get a $50 gift card to Best Buy, but I won’t even get anything cool with that, probably just a cover for my phone or something. Plus, when you were little all you had to do was make your parents a coffee mug in art class, it didn’t even have to be good. Write “World’s Best Parents” on a pile of play-dough and you were golden. Now I spend more money buying gifts in a two week span than I get for the year.
Time off:
When you’re little, you get like two weeks off from school. Two whole weeks off from something you hate is a gift in itself. And it wasn’t a normal two weeks of sitting around bored; there was coco to drink, sledding to do, snowmen to build. You’d wake up everyday, have you’re best friend come over and run around in the snow all day like you were on cocaine. It was awesome.
Now, I get Christmas day off from work and that’s it. Otherwise I’m sitting here with my thumb up my ass drinking coffee to stay awake because everyone else on the planet took the whole week off and there’s nothing to do. How did I go from 2 weeks of snowball fights, whipped cream-loaded coco and wearing pajamas all day to 6:30 am wake-ups, bad coffee and a pair of slacks? Seriously, fuck my life
Clothes and dressing up:
Maybe this is just me, but in my younger years I loved dressing up for Christmas. When you wear sweatpants and a “Football is Life, the rest is just details” t-shirt everyday, you take a certain joy in throwing on a sick pair of slacks, a nice button down and a tie covered in Santa Clauses. Maybe you wore the same tie as your Dad, which was sweet, but either way it was fun to get festive, only to spill egg-nog and tomato sauce all over your shirt.
Today, I wear the same shit to work everyday, slacks and a button down. I still spill food all over it but that’s beside the point. Now I use holidays as an excuse to wear comfy socks and no shoes. I wear jeans and a dark colored sweater to hide the wine and food stains I will undoubtedly accumulate. No one feels the need to dress festive cause there’s no little kids running around to cheer up and convince Santa is coming soon.
Family:
Remember when you were little and you would be all fired up cause your favorite Uncle and cousins were coming to town? Your cousin was 15 and cool, knew all the popular music, wore cool Tommy Hilfiger shirts and didn’t have a bowl-cut. Your Aunt and Uncle would tell you how tall you’re getting and how you look so mature. They’d compliment you, and then give you a present. It was sweet.
Now, your once cool cousin has an annoying wife and 2 kids who run around like maniacs. The only thing he talks to you about is why you haven’t confirmed his facebook friend request. Your Uncle doesn’t even come anymore because it’s too cold in New York in December, and the family members that do still show up just tell you you’re getting fat and ask if you’re going to get married soon. It’s like a job interview with alcohol involved. And when you’re young, you don’t really notice/catch-on/care about the minute little family arguments everyone gets into. At 10 you thought it was funny your mom called her brother a “cheating low-life,” cause you didn’t understand it. Now it just makes things awkward.
Really the only two things that haven’t changed in the last 15 years are that I still have the same parents, and I always wish for the Giants to win the Super Bowl.
Am I bitter about all of this? No, of course not, it’s just the way things go. Obviously you weren’t going to be able to maintain the same excitement and process you had when you believed a fat guy in a red suit was bringing you gifts, but I still love Christmas. So I hope everyone gets a day or two off from work, drinks too much with their family, gets that new pair of winter gloves you’ve been dying for, watches A Christmas Story 14 times and enjoys the wonderful holiday we call Christmas.
That dog’ll hunt
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