Christmas is an interesting time of year. My parents co-ordinate and tell everyone a limit for how much we spend on Christmas presents, then we all go to my parents' place and alternate between cherry picking the rubbish Christmas TV and playing Wii golf. The best part is my mom's cooking.
One thing I have noticed though, is that I feel less and less connected to the spirit of Christmas as I get older. When I was a child it used to be a magical time. Now it's just blah. At one point I bought a domain name, and thought of setting up a North Pole style website, to inspire kids and keep the myth of father Christmas going. But it never launched. In fact, it never got designed. In today's society, no matter what you do you're a paedophile. Unless exhaustively proven otherwise. The best attitude is to ensure you have zero contact with children, even indirectly, unless you actually gave birth to one.
So my next idea was my parents. My mom always prepares stockings to us, "from Father Christmas". They have some amusing junk in them. Socks. A tube of pringles (she always remembers to get me Salt & Vingegar, my favourite flavour). Usually some of those chocolate coins. An orange usually makes it's way in there. Anyway, it's a nice little surprise for us, and perhaps the last truly 'magical' part of Christmas. Though it's more a simple card trick than a Christmas miracle.
So anyway, they don't get that excitement because they organise it. So, beginning in October, I put my plans into place. I had custom stitched Christmas stockings created for both of them, and searched a whole load of customised present websites, to find gifts that exactly fit them, and which could be customised with their name or initials on. I included some junk stuff too, like some Christmas themed chocolates. You have to have some of that in a stocking.
I didn't tell anyone about it, and then at 2am after my mother had discreetly gone to bed, having done her secret Father Christmas work, I slipped out of my room. I'd already wrapped the presents three weeks ago, and had carted them to my parents' house in an old bag, covered with some old newspaper. I had carefully put the presents into the stockings that night, and I snuck down and left my gifts.
On the day, they were a bit surprised at first, but very happy to get their nice gifts. It made me feel warm inside, and I guess gave me back a bit of the Christmas spirit. But it did make me wonder what Christmas is really all about. And have we forgotten the real meaning of Christmas entirely.
With that in mind, I took this. It's my 2013 Christmas photo.
