I have been told ever since I was a little kid that Christmas comes but once a year. When I was a kid, I thought that was a bummer. Now, I say something more along the line of “thank goodness”. As a kid, it seemed that Christmas presents just sort of appeared on Christmas morning – probably from Santa. I didn’t realize that the presents that came were based on what my parents could afford. Mine could not afford much, but luckily games were dirt cheap back then. You could buy all kinds for a buck or a little more. Once you opened your loot, you could check with friends to see what they had received and then play games all day and for weeks after if so desired.
We used to play some cut throat monopoly games a lot. When there were just two of us we concentrated on a game called Camelot. Camelot was sort of a combination of chess and checkers. (We also played chess and checkers.) You had to defend your throne from the bad guys while you tried to take over their throne. It kept us busy as we didn’t have any TV or hand held digital games. It was tough back then. Heck, we didn’t even know what a PC was, but that was ok as nobody else including grownups did either. After all, we had Chinese checkers and even Easy Money – which was a knockoff of Monopoly.
It usually snowed where we lived on Christmas Day or thereabouts. So we would go outside and throw snowballs while trying to avoid the ice-balls being made by the bigger guys. In addition, someone usually received a new sled so we would head out for one of the nearby hills to test it out and see who was the fastest. We had some king sized hills so going down them was a good deal of fun. Dragging the sled back up each time was not quite as much of a good thing. This was particularly true if you lost a glove or even whatever you wore to protect your shoes. The rule was that you stayed out and sledded until your parents called you home, no matter what you lost.
The above three paragraphs was when I was a kid. When The Blonde in the house and I became parents it was obvious that presents didn’t just appear. We had to figure what we could afford to surprise our kids. I believe that we must have done a fairly good job as none of our kids have hinted to us that they didn’t like their presents. (Of course they are good kids and probably wouldn’t do so anyhow.) We do recall buying our oldest son the first home video game which was called Odyssey. It may have been the first but that was about all that it had for fame. It was essentially a ping pong game where you hit the ball back and forth on the TV screen. It did come with some board game paraphernalia. In any case, we thought we were pretty good parents then. Both sons eventually got better games. I guess we all know what technical marvels they have for grand-kids now.
I wonder what the grand-kids will tell their grand-kids someday. The grand-kids then will probably think that today’s grand-kids played with some mighty antique stuff and will feel sorry for them.
I’d hate to think what they would say about what we played with as a kid. I doubt they will be able to imagine marbles or pick up sticks. Life changes, but hopefully little kids and Christmas will be with us forever!
Barry Evans writes about Life in The Villages for Villages-News.com
