Holiday Traditions

For the days leading up to Christmas Day, it all looks like something out of Currier & Ives for my family. There's the holiday cheer, the sending of the Christmas Cards, the gift buying and gift wrapping, the Christmas Carols on the radio and the stereo, the turkey dinner, the story of the first Christmas (read my my Mom), the opening of the gifts -- ripping the wrapping off really -- and for those who partake of such things, a late night service. All of this happens through Christmas Eve.

My family always opened gifts and had a big turkey dinner the day before Christmas be cause my grandmother was not an early riser and decided her holiday tradition was doing all of this the night before and then essentially take the next day off by sleeping in late. To her, it just seemed more civilized. Sure, Santa showed up and stuffed the stockings when we were kids but he didn't bother laying a bounty of toys under the tree.

The latest wrinkle to that tradition happened when I got several DVD's for Christmas one year. One of them was "The Guns of Navarone" with Gregory Peck. Having tired of the 300th rerunning of "Miracle on 34th St.", "It's a Wonderful Life", "A Charlie Brown Christmas" or another bowl game, we popped the movie into the player as was immediately transported to World War II and the saving of the British fleet by a group of freedom fighters led by Mr. Peck. It was a breath of fresh air and something we try to do every year. And it's a tradition you might well want to start yourself.

Let's face it, the run up to the Holidays now drags on from sometime in September when the first Christmas displays go up through the first week of January, when all of that Christmas bunting (trees, wreaths and garland) looks a bit tattered and frayed. You really need a couple of days in there to recharge your batteries from the unbridled hawking of retail merchants to buy and to prepare yourself for the potential drunken debauchery of New Year's Eve. What better day than Christmas Day?

Now I'm not saying to pick a really graphic war movie. Good choices might include: "Patton", "Ice Station Zebra", "Three Kings", "Stalag 17", "The Great Escape" (or it's hilarious Aardman send up: "Chicken Run"), "Tora, Tora, Tora" and "Midway" to name just a few. If you're not into a nice war flick, choose another category: SciFi, Film Noir, Westerns or silent films even. Just something not Christmas to clear your head and allow you to enjoy those last couple of weeks.