Host of Christmas Past

It’s that festive season at the end of the year that makes the young excited and everyone else nostalgic.

I remember how excited I was for Christmas back in high school. It was all about the gifts, the lights, the decorations, the food, and getting together with family and friends.

It began with finding a Christmas tree, which my dad was great at hunting down. I’d join him in the woods nearby, where we’d walk for hours until we found the perfect pine tree for our living room. Once we did, he’d chop it down with a hatchet and carry it back to our car. We had to be quiet—the lot we were on probably belonged to a rich neighbour, and we weren’t supposed to be there stealing trees.

My mom was all about decorating the tree. The moment it was set upright in its stand, with braces holding it in place, it was time to bring out the boxes of lights and ornaments. These were stored in the shed, so we had to check if all the lights worked and discard any broken ornaments before we could start decorating.

Then came the task of maintaining the tree, giving it water so its needle-shaped leaves wouldn’t turn brown and fall off—or, worse, get so dry it became a fire hazard.

One time, my dad made the mistake of not measuring a tree before cutting it. It turned out to be too tall for the living room, and he had to trim it with a chainsaw. He did that in the kitchen. What a mess! I think that was the final straw before we finally switched to an artificial, reusable tree the following year. That change also prompted my dad to build his own garage so he’d have proper space for his amateur woodworking projects.

While my mom was busy decorating the inside of the house with lights, garlands, and pictures of Santa Claus, my dad went all out on the outdoor decorations. His illuminations were so elaborate that we even won prizes for them on occasion. They probably blinded a few drivers passing by.

Back inside, Mom was cooking all sorts of desserts and meals for our big Christmas party. My favourite was a batch of little pastries made from cooked dough, dipped in sugar, with a twist of chocolate nestled on top. Mmm, mmm!

To get into the Christmas spirit, I’d go on car rides with family and friends to see the decorations other people had put up—provided there wasn’t a snowstorm. Even better was right after one passed. The snow would cover everything, and the lights would reflect off it, making the world look like a fairy tale.

On Christmas Eve, we hosted the biggest party, where all our relatives came over. We’d have a blast singing, stuffing our faces, and opening presents.

Sometimes I’d go online and chat with my friends in cyberspace. There was something magical about logging onto a web chat, ICQ, or AIM and just hanging out during the school holidays, trading stories of what everyone was doing for the festivities in their part of the world.

The gifts I remember most were the video game consoles I received: the NES, then the SNES, and the Game Boy. Those were the good times of the golden era of video games. I remember my sister and me playing with those consoles as soon as we got them, right up until we had to go out to celebrate New Year’s somewhere.

Today, I live far from my family. I’m not much into gifting or Christmas anymore. My family and I exchange season’s greetings, and that’s pretty much it. Oddly enough, I’m fine with that. Times change. I’m not sad those moments are gone; I’m just happy they happened. Now, I’ve found other things to celebrate.

I hope you enjoyed these pictures of the holidays I took in the early 2000s.

This was my only post of 2024. (Update: I was wrong.)

Happy holidays!