I Miss Christmas Time as a Kid

In a few days from now, kids will be waking up to toys underneath the tree. They will open them with great joy and spend the next week or so out of school enjoying them. Meanwhile I will be waking up at 6:30am each day and working until 4 or 5pm. It makes me wish I could go back to a time when I was actually able to enjoy my Christmas. Now my Christmas consists of trying to find gifts for others, stressing over seeing family members, and stringing up lights that seem to keep falling down no matter how well I secure them.

I remember I would wake up and really believe that a fat man named Santa had brought me toys. I would awake to Transformers, Nintendo games, and Lego sets underneath my tree. I would rush to start unwrapping one, then gaze at the gift with stars in my eyes before quickly jumping to the next one. I’d unwrap them all and then experience the thrill of finding the one gift I had missed in the corner somewhere. This was always the best part. It always turned out to be a gift I didn’t expect too.

After unwrapping everything, it’s time to play with the wrappings on the floor. Parents often wonder why kids pay so much attention to the boxes and wrappings, but how often do you get to have such a mess around to play with? After that, it’s off to discover the capabilities of the gifts you received. I would always start with the simple gifts. Things like boomerangs, coloring books, Nerf guns and such. The best items such as the electronic gadgets and video games were saved for last.

After playing with the simple things, I would stay up all evening playing with my favorite gifts, often taking over the TV to play video games. I remember when I got Super Mario Bros. 2 I stayed up until dawn playing it. I woke up at noon the next day only to continue my quest before moving on to Zelda II.

I remember I was always sick during the holidays, but it didn’t matter. I could sit in a chair and play Tetris on the tiny black and white screen of my Gameboy for hours and it would take my mind off the fact that I had a runny nose. My mom would bring me food, but I practically would starve myself because I didn’t want to lose any time I could have playing with my toys.

Every hour of every day of the 2 weeks I’d get off of school was spent enjoying everything I had. Staying up late, waking up late and napping whenever I liked. No worries. No bills to pay. No responsibilities at all. I wish I had known it was really like my parents always said, that as a child it’s the best time of your life. I never knew what they meant until now.