The Holiday Issue

The holidays are stressful. Presents are stressful. Menorahs and Christmas trees can be beautiful and meaningful. But what is simultaneously wonderful and awkward about this time of year is the communication (or lack thereof) that it engenders.

There are Christmas cards sent--generic form letters updating us on Bob's latest travels and his wife Cookie's recent surgery, as well as heartfelt hellos--how are you doing? how is your health? how are those joints holding up? we love you and just wanted to check in). There are fruitcakes that arrive in the mail (my grandfather used to sip coffee from a mug that screamed, "Get EVEN: GIVE FRUITCAKE). There are odd gifts that one could/would never desire or use in a thousand years, even if paid to do so--and the curious missives that sometimes accompany them ("Aunt Rudy and I know the tinfoil scarf isn't 100% your style, but know you're open to change, so...!).

There are the requisite family parties ("Hi, [insert name here]. It's wonderful to see you! Too bad we don't see each other any other day of the year and feel obligated to exchange vapid hugs epitomizing the bleakness of isolation every year on Christmas!") There's the all-pervasive commercialism, blaring from every radio, billboard, tv, telephone pole, and sidewalk curb in your town. There are the tinsel boughs and fake apples and eggnog displays that go up in the department stores around, say, February, to remind us all that Christmas is approaching.

This year, we have the economy to contend with, too. Presents might cost less, but that doesn't negate the fact that there's little free cash to spend on them in the first place. This year, I bought a few presents, but decided to spend the rest of the holiday money (there's the ambiguous "holiday" because the Creak family is so 20th/21st century and celebrates both Hanukkah and Christmas) on charity. One charity that appealed especially to the dog sensibility, albeit not my arthritis sensibility in particular, is heifer.org. I was able to buy chicks and goats for a needy family. Though I know a dog would be a welcome addition to any household around the world, giving dogs was not an option...

But in the end, the holidays are usually welcome. They provide time off from work and school, toil and labor and sweat. They encourage yummy foods to be baked. They provoke eggnog lattes to be available, at least for a little while.

And they force us to reconnect. I'll be wearing the tinfoil scarf--be sure to say hi.