Writing Resources from Fifteen Minutes of Fiction

2020 Christmas

When you were a little child, you couldn't wait for Christmas. The clock seemed to stand still once the calendar reached the middle of December and you thought that special day would never come. Anticipation was ninety-nine percent of the excitement of the holiday.

Then you got older.

You knew you were getting older because you stopped believing in Santa Claus and Rudolph. You no longer built snowmen with the hope that your marvel of snow-engineering would come to life and dance across the yard.

Some of the magic left Christmas when that happened.

As you continued growing older, though you still enjoyed Christmas, it just didn't evoke those same feelings of anticipation, wonder and excitement. Or maybe it did, and the feelings got drowned out by all the other clutter of your life.

Eventually you reached the point where the wonder and magnificence of the day had dwindled to a mild amusement, and you held yourself aloof from the frenetic energy of the day, and sighed as you watched the little ones tear open their presents with a vigor you no longer felt.

Someday, if you live long enough, you will find that, having experienced a good three-score and ten holidays, there's nothing about the day that surprises you anymore, and no matter how hard you try, you won't be able to convince yourself that this day is any different than the 365 other days in the year.

Then you'll just want to give up on the day.

It's taking us - as a species - much longer to reach the point, but the human race gets older, more cynical, more contemptuous and unbelieving with every passing century. Which is why, in the year 2020, with perfectly scornful hindsight, we will stop celebrating holidays altogether.

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