Dirt Under My Fingernails: The Gentle Ghosts of Christmas Past

Friday, November 30, 2012

The Gentle Ghosts of Christmas Past

Here we are, on the cusp on December, awaiting the first Sunday in Advent, but already jaundiced by the jingles on Christmas ads and counting the calories of sweet treats not yet consumed. Even the hyper bright displays of Christmas lights are less than wonderful; warm weather and vigilant opportunism means some homes have been lit since the day after Halloween.

But these are mere tokens of Christmas, shades, suggestions, hints. They are fake storefronts, window dressing, stage props to the Charles Dickens' Spirits of Christmas Future, Present and Past. How terrifying did the Spectre of the future appear to youngsters like me! How filled with melancholy and regret the Spirit of Christmas present compared to the wholesome, uncomplicated anticipation and happiness that was my experience! And how nebulous and evanescent the Ghost of the Past, illustrating perhaps how fleeting human happiness is.

Or, maybe, the Ghosts of Christmases past are only wraiths because our memories are as unreliable and impermanent as Polaroids, the images fading nearly as soon as they appear. As we resurrect our Christmases past, we people our world with loved ones long gone, with steaming kitchens and fragrant evergreens, with beloved carols and pealing bells, with fireplaces and frost, with treasured toys, games, pets, and other perishables. Come with me for a brief visit from the gentle ghost of Christmas past....