60 Second Stories By Cal - My Best Christmas

My mother bought us a scanner this year that is specifically designed to scan slides - something our family choose over photographs for most of our lives. Blame my dad and his love for dying technologies like 8 track players, reel to reel tape machines, slide projectors and Beta VCRs.

I spend some time tonight setting up the hardware but suddenly I had to stop. I just couldn't put a single slide into the scanner because seeing anything about Christmas when my father was alive would just depress me more I already am.

My father loved Christmas. He always did everything up right. When we lived in Europe he would take his points and fly back to Canada just to shop toys for us in mid November. Only the newest and most popular toys were good enough for his kids.

I knew those slides will show all the great Mego action figures, G.I. Joes, Big Jims, Playmobil and other great toys that I had. Maybe in a week I will try to get down to them again after my ennui passes.

My favorite Christmas story happened when I was 7. We arrived in Europe on December 24th and NONE of our boxes from North American had arrived yet. We had nothing in the house and there was no stores open that late in the season. So without hope that he would have ANYTHING for his children, My Father went out into the dark night anyways.

Walking the streets of Lahr he did a lot of looking into the windows of the closed shops and said he almost threw a brick through the window of the homemade toy store but before he could convince himself that it was a good idea he was asked inside my a man who ran a chocolate shop. He walked out of the store with some beautiful German chocolate bars with these freaky little troll dolls tied to them. It wasn't much but it was at least something he could give us.

Then before coming home he stopped off at his work for some reason and on his desk was a huge box addressed to him. The box contained the 1972 set of World Book Encyclopedias that he had ordered six months before. They also came with the set of Childcraft Books - which had stories and information about things specifically of interest to little kids.

 

The 1973 edition consisted of the following:

1. Poems and Rhymes

2. Stories and Fables

3. Children Everywhere

4. World and Space

5. About Animals

6. How Things Work

7. How We Get Things

8. What People Do

9. Holidays and Customs

10. Places to Know

11. Make and Do

12. Look and Learn

13. Look Again

14. About Me

15. Guide for Parents

So those were all the presents that we got that year, but to be honest - it was the greatest Christmas we ever spent as a family. While eating chocolate (that was so great that you could only eat a few pieces at a time), my Dad showed us all about dog and cat breeds, Canadian history, overheads of how the human body worked, famous Canadians, weapons and armor and traditional costumes.

For a kid that loved toys, I hardly noticed that we had none (until February when our boxes finally arrived in Germany) because having my Dad explain to me why Vimmy Ridge was the most important battle for Canada in WWI and how Banting and Best discovered insulin started me on a real life long long of learning and information. He made the stories so interesting that I just had to know more.

 

For the next two weeks I did nothing but pour through those beautiful volumes.

Over the years I must have read those encyclopedias from beginning to end over a dozen times. Before GOOGLE, having a great set of encyclopedias was the best resource a junior high student could have. Any information you needed to write about a certain country or the assassination of a President like Kennedy was at your fingertips.

I should honor my Dad by making Christmas as special as he did but I have no friends or family or kids to make it worthwhile. My mother and I volunteer alot to fill shoeboxes or hand out coats and food to the homeless and hungry. We send some goats and a school package to a poor village in Africa too. It's nice to be involved in the giving but I still feel hollow inside.

And that is why, these days, I hate Christmas most of all. I would rather not know how good a time it could be than to have to sit today and only have my memories to keep my cold bitter and frozen heart from breaking in half.

That being said - don't be like me. Make this time of year as memorable for your kids as you can. One day they might feel like I do and I promise that the ONLY thing that will get them through the next couple of days will be their good memories of the season. You never really can appreciate the greatness of that family time until it is gone.

Merry Christmas from Kal and Lord Admiral Fluffy.