Page 28 2024 Home For The Holidays Lincoln Daily News Christmas Curmudgeon Slow that sleigh, Santa! Does someone fl ip a tinsel switch on the fi rst of November? I ask because it seems as though we go from spooky and creepy to shiny Christmas glitter distraction with the turn of the calendar page. Every commercial immediately becomes some store with some something that some, if not all of us, need to spend some of our money on. Seems like some kind of racket to me. Do we REALLY need gifts for Christmas? If holiday movies have taught me anything, it’s that presents aren’t the point. In fact, sometimes they are the problem. I can sense your eyes rolling. Let me prove it. All Ralphie wants for Christmas is an offi cial Red Ryder carbine action 200 shot range model air rifl e with a compass in the stock. Spoiler alert! He gets it. Minutes later he shoots his eye out…well, close enough. His parents have spent money on gifts galore and now they’ll be forced to shell out even more for a new pair of glasses. Merry Christmas! Cut to a Chinese restaurant where the family is decking the halls and preparing for dinner. It’s here we see the real meaning of Christmas... family, love, laughter and duck heads. You can keep your bb gun. The older I get the more I realize I’d give back every gift I’ve ever received to sit around a dinner table with my grandparents one more time. When the holidays are here, I miss my brother who lives in Texas. I’ll trade any gift for a few rounds of darts with both of my brothers and my dad. That’s Christmas. Not convinced? You’re a mean one, Mr. Grinch. You are also the character I most relate to in any Christmas story ever. I get it folks…you are thinking his heart grew three sizes and he came racing down the mountain to return everything, right? So what? The Grinch was right. All of the presents, and the decorations, and the “noise, noise, noise, NOISE” meant nothing. When the sun rises, Christmas comes and the Whos in Whoville “Fah-who foris, fah-who doris” their little hearts out. Those Whos all came together in the town center, held hands, and sang songs. When all seemed lost their community was where they turned. Nothing you fi nd in your stocking Continued --
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