How Christmas-y R U?

A Jim Watkins Christmas, starring Jim Watkins.

My wife and twin sons just left PIX after a visit to daddy at the office. It harkens back to what was something of a holiday family tradition when I was a little boy. Each year, a few days before Christmas, my mom, brother, and I would drive to downtown Cincinnati where my Dad’s office was. (There’s something very thrilling for little kids to see the place where their mom or dad work. I saw it in my boys’ eyes tonight. I wonder what the psychology on that one is.) We’d then go to Shillito’s, the big department store in Cincinnati during those years, where we saw Santa. Come to think of it, it’s almost exactly like the pre-Christmas department store scene in “A Christmas Story,” which maybe you’ll be seeing during one of its 47-showings on television during the next few days. It was fun. A good Christmas memory.

My sons didn’t get a department store trip. After their visit to the station, we went across the street and had a slice at a pizza joint. Then they went home. Ahh, making new memories for the next generation.

I like Christmas, I really do. But my wife… she LOVES Christmas. She is the embodiment of the Christmas spirit. She is the ghost of Christmas present. She likes Christmas cards, Christmas parties, Christmas decorations. She is extremely Christmas-y. And she’s passed this along to Luke, Jamie, and Liam. They’ve totally picked up on her love of Christmas music, which she began playing constantly right after Halloween. Now one of the twins takes a little radio to bed with him and falls asleep with it set to the Lite FM station that plays Christmas songs around the clock. How cute is that? Me, I like my Christmas music to be fired up right around, I’d say, December 23rd. Late in the day. I’m sorry, I just think there’s a limit to how many times a person can hear “Jingle Bell Rock” before madness sets in.

Now, do NOT be using the S-word on me! (Scrooge) I’m not a Scrooge! I’ve been extremely supportive of my family’s immersion in all things Christmas. The twins took a liking to Nutcracker figures this year. So every time they wanted one, Lauren took them to the gift shop. We now have 16 of them; a nutcracker army, as they call it. (We were hopeful, then, that they’d really be into the performance of “The Nutcracker Ballet” we took them to last weekend. Alas, we weren’t halfway through the party scene before the I-wanna-go-home’s started. Too bad, but ya know, that first scene IS really long.)

Anyway, Christmas fever is raging in our house, and if the kids are happy, I’m happy. People with varying degrees of Christmas-y-ness CAN live in peace and harmony. And if that’s not a sweet holiday sentiment, then my name isn’t Ebenezer.

P.S. I really enjoyed all the fun comments after my post yesterday on joining Facebook. A few folks mentioned they couldn’t find my page, though. I couldn’t either when I searched on someone else’s login. I’m not limiting searches, so that’s not it. Any suggestions?