If you are like me, you would never think some things could change. When you were a child did you see the world around you and really... never expect it to change?   No matter who we are we all look back and think, "I never expected the world to change." Not like it has.

I recall playing in the creek... alone.  Sometimes with friends, or just plain exploring the woods for hours behind my home. I recall walking two miles to the shopping center with friends at the age of ten.  I remember my parents leaving me and  second grade date at the movie theater to see Robin Hood.   I remember Christmas.  I remember how the family would sit at the television for Christmas Specials and that familiar saying that really sparked excitement in me... "The regularly scheduled program has been cancelled tonight so that we may bring you the following special presentation."  I recall my mother baking cookies, it seemed like an endless supply too.  In short, the world and Christmas seemed so much more innocent.

Like everything else in our world, Christmas has changed.   Sure there are movies that offer up what are supposed to be typical families in New England settings with snow on the ground and fires lit in the fire place all the time.   But even those movies are now filled with not just quirky flawed Characters but what at one time would have been thought impossible, outrageous people.  Intolerable.   Even the stories are sad.  Last year a movie about scores of children from divorced families being trapped in an airport was a comedy.  Life wasn't always this way.

As I grew up I saw Christmas change.    I recall when the biggest problem anyone had with Christmas was the message, "Remember folks, Christ is the reason for the season."  There was a reminder year to year that we should remember that we shouldn't take "Christ" out of "Christmas". 

Wow, how that battle was lost. And what is utterly amazing is that I never thought it could be.  I never thought it would be conceded either. The modern church has been taken over by apathy and acceptance of this. It seems the soul is taken out of Christmas.

Even the thought of a jolly old Saint named Santa whom visits the globe in one night sprinkling toys to all the good little boys and girls has been adulterated to a point that no one really cares.  Parents obediently take their kids to the mall to see Santa, not so the kids can tell Santa what they want but so Mom can have that coveted photo to put on post cards so that she may get them out on time.  She's more pre-occupied with showing off her trophy kids than finding out what toys her children likes... and why.  

And perhaps that is what bothers me most. We are all about ourselves now. So much of Christmas is about "me" and not about the power of giving and the meaning of the season. 

I heard about how "face paced" Christmas was becoming when I was a kid.  I can imagine what my parents think of it now having seen it evolve even further.  

Perhaps in some other country things there is a place where values have not been so far devolved.  Perhaps I'm even wrong about what I see in the world around me.  Yet for all our giving, it seems we don't give with heart.  We don't give with soul.  We don't give from a place inside us that counts.   To all of you out there that this doesn't have meaning to, perhaps you are just like me and caught in the past and still believe in Christmas the way I do.  Or perhaps you've just had so little reason to love in your life that Christmas could mean little to you anyway.  But to most of you... Most likely the people NOT reading this article... you've lost your way and you've lost Christmas.

So how did Christmas change?  It didn't.  We did.  Our society, especially America has become decadent. We have more than enough and the holiday just isn't special.  Our society has become litigious and we are all afraid to celebrate too; in short we have been forced to become politically correct because Malls and airports can't put up trees, cities can't have displays... Public speakers are handcuffed with words and the list goes on.  Businesses have bogus Pollyanna's without heart. because the boss wants to make sure the company isn't sued. ..Eventually it all trickled into our own homes.   It changed because that same political correctness even found a way to shut up the church, the churches of all Christian sects have been shut-up. 

All that is left is the remnants of the holiday infrastructure.  As my life moves on, I'm watching the death of Christmas. 

But for now... Merry Christmas!  My real tree is decorated and Santa will get cookies Christmas eve.  Me and my boys sing carols and I hope they love Christmas the way I had when I was a boy.  One day they'll be married with kids visiting my home with a big Christmas meal and I'll look back on Christmas and think... It only got better.

A man can dream.  Merry Christmas.