Christmas and Cordial Cherries go Hand-in-Hand

When I was a kid, we would celebrate Christmas with mama’s family on Christmas Eve. 

I’ve talked about this before. Mama, my aunt and grandmother would take time about hosting the festivities.

We would eat and exchange gifts.

After that, we would go to my great aunt’s house and open presents there. One of the highlights was always a crisp $10 bill from my great aunt and uncle who lived in Texas.

It was all very Norman Rockwell — with a sprinkle of Elon Musk when the ten-spot appeared, I suppose.

There was always a common theme regarding the presents from grandmother, however.

At the height of our family, there were eight of us. And each year, she would give one — maybe two — of us a box of cordial cherries.

Grandmother took great pain in spending the same amount on everyone.

And one year it came to light that the cordial cherries went to the person or people who she spent 25 cents less on than everyone else.

I was the youngest, so I don’t know if I was the only one who didn’t immediately understand the significance of the cordial cherries or if everyone figured it out at the same time.

By the time I was 8 or 9, I could look at my presents from grandmother before I opened them and tell if I got cherries or not.

Honestly, I didn’t hate the cherry years. I think they’re pretty good, and to the best of my knowledge, I’ve never turned one down.

***

Here’s an update from a couple of columns ago.

It saddens me to report we have had a spike in cases of cars wearing antlers.

If you read the earlier column — thank you, by the way, if you did — I reported that as of Dec. 6 I had only seen one car wearing antlers.

It is now two weeks later, and I’m up to 9 and a half.

The half came from a car that was only wearing one.

I would’ve asked if I’d had the opportunity.

And to make matters worse, a variant has now sprung up. We are experiencing an uptick in cars wearing candy canes.

There’s no vaccine.

Come on, science, here’s some funding, let’s get some clinical trials or something going.

I promise you, I won’t ever write about car antlers again. 

Not this year, at least.

*** 

I want to end this week with my Christmas wish for all of us.

It’s simple.

Let’s try to carry the spirit of Christmas with us all year long.

I’m so disheartened by some of the behaviors I’ve witnessed over the past several months — behaviors which would’ve been unheard of 10 years ago.

If there really was a Santa Claus, he could singlehandedly revive the coal industry with all the people who would wake up Saturday morning with a lump of it in their stockings.

I hope that doesn’t sound self-righteous, because I’ve gotten chocolate-covered cherries when I deserved coal plenty of times.

But we’re better than what we’ve shown lately.

Take the spirit of Christmas with you all year long.

That will go way farther in solving some of our country’s problems than something like an ugly bumper sticker.

I wish you all a merry Christmas. 

Thank you for putting up with me again this year.