One type of children’s book tries to entertain both parents and kids, and isn’t as much fun as it purports to be for anyone. Another type doesn’t try to entertain adults at all. Another type manages to entertain both. Dr. Seuss comes to mind as preeminent in that field.
The Christmas season is the epic time of year for attempts to entertain both kids and adults.
Years ago, I decided I would put up Christmas lights in the window of my shabby little apartment. Not many people did that in the neighborhood, so there was the added discomfort of drawing attention to myself. And as a mere apartment renter, one can feel guilty of a bloated sense of self-importance in putting up Christmas lights, traditionally such a middle-class, suburban, home-owner thing to do.
That year, I decided I would get a small string of purple lights. After putting them up, I walked out in the street to see how they looked. I’ll never forget standing out in the street, shivering, with so much happiness in my heart as I looked up at those festive little purple lights!
As a husband and father, with a house, the opportunities are spectacular for decorating the yard and house. It’s a responsibility to our little boy, to provide him with moments of wide-eyed wonder, though there’s sadness too in trying to create memories that he might look back on someday with a wish that he could do something like it in circumstances that might not be as hospitable as ours now are, for however long.
Will he have a house with a fireplace? A tree in the front yard wrapped in colorful lights, and decorated with oversized gold, silver, red and green balls? Backyard trees wrapped in lights, decorated? Not things that cost a lot, or are difficult to set up, but having the family, and the house, and the family with the common tradition of Christmas? Good luck with that, kid.
I went three decades on my own before all these things fell into place, and I got lucky. Maybe my son won’t have the same good luck. It’s likely that what we have won’t seem special to him until long after it’s ended. Maybe he’ll be a happy, well-groomed, wholesome, faithful young man, with genuine reverence for the family traditions. Maybe not.
But that’s the faith of Christmas: the magic of the lights, trees, decorations, the traditions, the ceremonies, the memories; that parents believe we can create the atmosphere and experiences that will take root as reservoirs of happiness in children that they will cherish all through their lives.