My Christmas Story

I'm a big fan of Christmas movies. Check that, I'm a huge fan/sucker for Christmas movies. Ever since I was a kid I always love this time of the year where I could cuddle up next to the fireplace or near our Christmas tree and watch some holiday favorites on TV.

My favorite Christmas movie is "It's a Wonderful Life". Some of my other favorites are the normal holiday classics like "Frosty the Snowman", "Rudolph", "Miracle on 34th St", and "White Christmas." Just recently (in the last 5 years) I've taking a liking to "Elf."

However, the one that reminds me the most of my childhood is none other than "A Christmas Story." I can remember going to see that with my brother for his birthday (Dec 14) when it first came out. I instantly fell in love with the movie and have watched it ever since it came out in the early 80's. For those that don't know about the movie (how you wouldn't I don't know), it follows a young boy named Ralphie Parker from the start of the Christmas season on up to Christmas Day. It is set in the late 1930's and the main plot of the movie is Ralphie is trying to secure a Red Ryder BB gun for his Christmas gift. There are also a lot of subplots in the movie that help make it a Christmas classic.

One of the reasons I really love the movie is because it actually reminds me of my childhood. I was always out to try and get that big score for Christmas. While Ralphie was out to get his Red Ryder BB gun, I on the other hand was out to catch Santa Claus in the act. I'm not kidding! This mission was almost as important to me as opening presents. Every year I would plot out my course of action on how I could catch the red hooded chimney climber. I can remember falling asleep underneath the tree with the idea that he would have to move me, thus waking me up, in the process of putting gifts under the tree. No such luck. It took a few years of failure for me to realize that I couldn't catch him that way. So I tried another method. I'd lay his cookies on a plate and lay it on me so when he came down the chimney and couldn't resist the Christmas cookies, he'd have pick my hands off them in order to eat them. That was a failed attempt also as I woke up the next morning with cookie crumbs all over me with an empty glass of milk that he helped himself to. I can remember one year I was determined to stay up all night and wait for the slightest noise and pop out on him in the middle of the night. That night I dozed off for the smallest bit of time and was woken up by hoof scuffs on the roof and jumped out of bed and ran to the living room only to discover that I was too late. Santa bested me once again.

I became more and more discouraged as I failed in my attempts to catch Santa. Yet year after year I'd spend days leading up to Christmas taking suggestions from my friends in how I should nab the gift giver. It didn't help that my dad filled my head with stories of him actually seeing him go up the chimney when he was a child. This made my desire to follow my dads footsteps and catch Santa in the act all the more important. But I eventually gave up. As my eyes were opened to the secrets of Christmas and the real meaning of Christmas, my perceptions of it all changed. It's a wonderful feeling knowing what Christmas really means to me as a Christian and how my savior was born to free me from my sin. I wouldn't trade knowing that for anything in this world.

However, there's still a small part of me that misses that challenge of trying to find Santa and finally putting to rest the case of the vanishing toy maker.

It's midnight Christmas eve, so I'm heading to bed. Merry Christmas!!! Did you hear that?....