Remember the simpler days of

"All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth"? Well, with

everything today just short of prenatal orthodontics, getting just two

teeth for Christmas is a naive notion. Our "gotta have it all"

attitudes seem to be worse than ever. The quaint days of caring and unselfishness

during 9/11 seem like a lifetime away now.

It's not that I am complaining

about the commercialism of Christmas like everyone else. That is too easy

a mark, and I am actually a believer of "anything worth doing is

worth overdoing." It's just that we buy into it all and aren't enjoying

it. We as a people are so childlike in understanding of happiness that

we continually jump at every offer that promises that holiday spirit,

with just three easy payments.

We are like a dog watching

potato chips being passed around the room, waiting for our chance to jump

at that crunchy, salty taste!

I love the holiday spirit.

I love that the parking lots are crowded and people are buzzing to and

fro. I love that it has actually been cold enough to remind us that Christmas

is a holiday not intentioned for shorts. I even love that my regular movie

trips are now crowded with kids out of school for the season. But, come

on, let's see some smiles. Let's see some cheer. This Christmas stuff

should not be so much work.

Because adult America has become

an immature, peer-based nation, we can't be happy until we have followed

every rule of how to impress all the people we know, we don't know, that

don't know us, that don't care about us and we don't care about them.

Everyone tells us how it's

"supposed to be." You gotta have the right tree, you gotta have

it the right size, the right color. Now decorate it with the right bulbs

bought from the right store. It has to be set up at just the right time,

in the right way, at the right angle. Now look at your tree. Do you see

some point or significance? Or, are you just imagining all those people,

wondering what they would think, how impressed they would be with your

taste, decorum and cash flow.

It's like everyone of us when

making a decision, has 20 other people in our pockets persuading us. I

can't buy that, my neighbor will think I am cheap. I can't buy this, my

boss might be offended by its religious significance. I have to get that,

Marge said it was so "in." I have to get this, no self-respecting

suburbanite would be caught dead without one. Mom would be impressed with

this, Dad would "hate" that, so I, for sure, am going to get

it.

Even then, if that's the way

we all wanted it, I would say more power to ya. But I don't see anyone

having any fun following these rules of engagement. The more we "do"

to try and show our Christmas spirit, it seems the less we really enjoy

it.

So, slow down. You don't have

to make every party. You don't have to get every thing just right. Any

happiness that has been based on how "right" you make the holidays

is a fake happiness anyway. Any happiness that has been based on the true

meaning and spirit of Christmas, now that is a real happiness.

[Visit Billy Murphy in hyperspace

at www.ebilly.net.]