And What Do You Want For Christmas?

“And what do you want for Christmas, little boy?”

I remember the skinny “Father Christmas” in England and later the fat, pillow-stuffed “Santa Claus” in Canada both saying the same thing to me when I was a kid. Two points on the globe an ocean apart.  It must be part of a universal script that comes with the red outfit and white beard.

Back then I had a long, long list. Didn't expect to get everything, but I made sure he heard all of it before I was plucked off his knee by a green bell-toed elf. Now, I wouldn't have a list even assuming they'd let me near the jolly guy. I don't have a wish list because I don't want anything for Christmas. No 60” flat screen HD TV, no iPhone...can't think of a thing that I want because I already have everything I need to live in happiness.

And what is “everything I need”? First and foremost is living in the USA where I have the freedoms that are denied to so many in the world. Believe me, better here than Nigeria. Next is my wife Judy who puts up with my absent-minded ways. She will tell you how really lucky I am because she has no faults. And too many other blessings to list here.

So, I will just wish all of you a very warm and love-filled Christmas season. And I'm never going to use some generic or politically correct term. It's Christmas, and it's called that for a very good reason.  I'm not insulting anyone's beliefs. I know that my many Jewish and Muslim friends understand and respect the meaning of the season just as I acknowledge their right to freely enjoy their religious holidays. If you want to call Christmas something else or don't believe in anything, that's fine with me too, because the constitutional right of free speech guarantees you can.

But at our house it will always be CHRISTMAS, and nothing else.