It's Little Christmas!!

 

   Today was my favorite holiday of the year. Or maybe my second favorite holiday, as I really like Easter for some reason. But anyway, as for today, today we celebrated “Little Christmas”, more commonly known among those of the Roman Catholic persuasion as the Feast of the Epiphany.  I know from my own research, that Little Christmas is commonly celebrated in Latin American countries but in my house it is celebrated not because we are of Latin American descent (we’re not) but because I decided I wanted a holiday all to myself.

   Now I didn’t set out to do this in the way that George Costanza’s father created Festivus, but rather because in my house, as in most homes I’d guess, the celebration of the holidays fell to the women. In my home, for instance, it is my wife who has always taken the lead on the holidays and thank goodness for that because, left to me, the holidays would be a dead bush in the corner and bologna sandwiches in front of the television.

   But while I don’t want to take over the holidays, I did want to create something that was Daddy’s day. Not a day where I am celebrated, by the way, but rather a day when I celebrate all of those in my family. For you see, Little Christmas in my home is a day when I give gifts to those in my family with explicit rules that there is to be NO reciprocation. None. I wanted one day when I get to play Santa Claus.

   No discussing of gift ideas with anyone, no shopping with anyone. I have to do it all by myself. The thinking, the buying, the wrapping. And, as a rule, it’s not to be anything big, but rather something small and, in many ways, insignificant compared to the gifts just received on Christmas. Because the idea behind the day is that it isn’t the value of the gift, but rather the fact that I want to show my kids and my wife how much I love them.

   I guess, now that I look back at it on paper, I am doing what God did in sending us Jesus. He gave a gift (albeit a bit more significant than my trinkets) just from him to everyone else. I never thought of it that way and I didn’t intend for this to become religious, but I do see a connection there.

    Anyway, today was my holiday. Tomorrow the lights and the tree come down and we’re back to normal for another three hundred and thirty days or so.  Merry (Little) Christmas.