What Will be ‘THE’ Gift of Christmas Future?
The gifts of Christmas Past have faded and gone, reports a newspaper in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Clothing is worn to rags and disposed of long ago, a few emerging in antique shops for those intent on reliving days in the ago. Toys also displayed in those collectable booths remind us in the baby boomer generation of things we owned, or wished for and didn’t get, or things tossed away thinking we grew up and would never be desiring them again.
But alas, we drool; remember the good times with the paint scared tractor play on the hot sidewalk away back in those days gone by. We consider the purchase of the look-alike replacement. We realize it would not be the same and leave the tractor and its wagon sitting on the floor of the antique mall gathering dust from the Baby Boomers shuffling along seeking treasures.
The gifts of this Christmas Present are just a week away. The day’s arrival is being counted down by X’s on the calendar. For the lucky an advent calendar awards a daily surprise and even greater anticipation upon each window opened. Packages have been wrapped here at Angelkeep and sit in family groups under the largest of three Christmas trees. It is a reminder of “enough” in an economic period that is not allowing “enough” to everyone. Some gifts are already “in the mail.” Shipping is a sad alternative to the preferred opportunity to exchange them in person.
“Perhaps next year,” again is the response on the phone, or an email announcing the impossibility of travel to Indiana and Angelkeep for a family get-together. “Yes, perhaps next year. That will be fun.” And everyone tries to put a glad face on the disappointment.
But what will next year really be? Who will be available for celebrating Christmas in a year or in ten years? How will the celebration change? Will the meaning of Christmas, the true story of its beginning, finally be totally erased from memory? Will gold and tinsel and lights and credit card limits be the primary focus for everyone?
Filed Under: Baby Boomer Culture • Baby Boomers
