My Secret Christmas List

Over the last couple of weeks I've been gathering a list of things I would like for Christmas. I never did let anybody see this list, which raises the question "Well, what's the point of a Christmas list if I don't tell anyone what it is that I want?" A noble question.

Since I've been home for the break, I was informed that I was not receiving any Christmas presents. I was a bit aghast because I had purchased my parents extremely thoughtful presents. I instantly regretted not giving my mother my secret Christmas list. However, after expressing my disappoinment with a crestfallen look across my face, my mother explained to me it wasn't due to the stock market or because I had been naughty, but instead because she preferred to take me on a sort of "back to school" shopping trip so I could find exactly what I wanted and make a day out of it with some mother-daughter bonding. Personally, I would much rather spend a day shopping with my mother instead of giving her a finite shopping list dictating "what I want," which in some respects would make me feel like I had turned her into my personal shopper.

Not being a full-blooded Christian since my mother is Jewish (which according to the Torah would make me Jewish being as the lineage follows the mother's blood line), I've never had a huge connection to the holiday. While we do celebrate it every year with my dad's side of the family, it was never a big deal in my nuclear family. As a child when we lived closer to my mother's side of the family, we did celebrate Hanukkah with my mother's parents and then Christmas with my dad's parents. Being a bit of an elitist even as a child, I always enjoyed celebrating Hanukkah a little bit more because I knew fewer people who celebrated the holiday. Additionally, growing up I was closer to my mother's side of the family because we saw them much more often, allowing for stronger bonds to develop so logically time spent with them was always more enjoyable.

It is my personal belief that this time of year is to be spent reflecting on what we are grateful for. It is meant to be spent with family and friends and to rekindle yearly traditions before the close of the year (these traditions include: obscene amounts of baked goods, poinsettias, decorating, walking at night to see the Christmas lights, feeling homey with your homies). It is meant for us to feel that inner warmth, which will serve to carry us through the darkest and coldest part of the year. No matter what one celebrates, this is a universal feeling; a feeling that makes the air around us electric and full of the goodness of life.


My Secret Christmas List

Some of the things I want but don't need:

• Blackberry Storm

Some of the things I want:

• new alarm clock
• Hardshell case for my macbook
• flannel check shirt

Some of the things I need:

• Broken Social Scene tickets
  
• American Apparel Deep V-Neck T's