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Remnants of Christmas

By Tim Wood

Originally published in The Columbia Daily Herald on Jan. 3, 1999.

Some people like to be done with Christmas and get ready for the New Year. Others like to hang on to it and savor it as long as possible.

I'm of the latter category. Although the big day is history, this past week was a time to enjoy the remnants of the holiday season.

Why do I like to hang on to Christmas? I wasn't always this way. There was a time that I wanted to forget about it and just get on with life.

Holidays can be difficult to manage. I tend to work too long and hard and miss out on much of the holiday fun. It's my own fault. I do go to many holiday programs and do some Christmas light scouting, but it just seems to go by so fast.

I don't slow down until after Christmas Day. Perhaps that's why the week after Christmas is the time I try to make up for lost holiday fun.

Fortunately, the week after Christmas had a few delights to offer. One of those pleasures was the Community Christmas Card volunteer dinner Tuesday night. It was fascinating to listen to the stories told by volunteers about the joy that the program brings to so many people.

None of this would be possible without the support of our readers, who donate generously to the project each year. Many, many hours of volunteer labor also go in to making the project a success.

Another highlight was learning that a story published in this newspaper had inspired two local people to provide needed items for a boy in Texas who is in need.

In The Daily Herald's Christmas Eve edition, an Associated Press story was published that told of the story of sixth-grader Anthony McKinney of Dallas, Texas. His letter to Santa asked for winter clothes, toys and a way to cook dinner. His letter had arrived too late for a charity project and had been filed without a response. A postal worker saw the letter this holiday season and responded to it.

Edna Hardin and Brenda Johnston verified the story and purchased groceries for the boy, who has never known his father and whose mother died in a traffic accident years ago.

McKinney is not alone in his requests for necessities in addition to, or in place of toys. Locally, that is occurring more often.

Christmas lights are still up and I'm discovering a few I hadn't seen before. The tree is still up at our house. Because I have a birthday a few days after Christmas, I've always had sort of a "second Christmas." If Santa forgets something on Christmas, he always has a another chance with me.

So, I hope you also enjoyed the week after Christmas. The decorations will be coming down soon and going into storage. It will be sad, but then we can all start anticipating the last Christmas of the 20th century.

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