Ponderings

Hopping down the bunny trail… and right off the track

Holidays are entirely awesome as a kid.

First, you get to believe these crazy stories that strange beings break into your house to leave you gifts, candy, or money. Take Easter, for instance. Kids everywhere really believe that a giant bunny hops around and leaves treats for everybody sometime in the eightish hours between when you go to sleep the night before and wake up at 7am, when no child should be eating chocolate. There is no problem with a giant animal breaking and entering - hell, your parents probably leave the door unlocked for him, anyway! The magic behind it is, he leaves small baskets, large baskets, chocolate bunnies, chocolate eggs, peeps, and maybe, if he’s feeling generous, toys. Awesome, right?

Then, as you get older and your friends and classmates begin to hear rumors, you become aware of the seedy underbelly of those strange beings. That bunny at the mall, the one you posed with for pictures? He isn’t “The” Easter Bunny. Mom & Dad explain that the Easter Bunny doesn’t have time or a way to see all the little kids before Easter, so he has helpers. You accept it, because your parents wouldn’t lie to you, right?

Then Billy or Buddy or Sally or Jo tell you that last year? They got up in the middle of the night for a drink of water, and they saw their mom and dad setting out candy in the living room, and eating the carrots that were left for ole’ E.B. You see, there is no Easter Bunny. Some other kid validates the truth, and you are suddenly disillusioned. That magic part of each holiday, of each lost tooth, was provided to you by your parents.

Still, the holidays aren’t all about fake characters made up way before you were born. You still get presents, you still get candy, and you still get to hang out with family you don’t see all the time. Grandparents come to visit from Florida. You see your cousins who live across state. You eat really great food and watch holiday programming on television. It’s okay that it’s provided by the people you see every day. It’s still provided, right?

Somewhere along the line, the magic dies. You grow up. Relatives pass on. There aren’t little kids in the family anymore. The cracks in the unit start to show. You start to see what Scrooge was getting at at the beginning of A Christmas Carol, and you maybe spend Easter watching bad reality television and drinking vodka while there’s a dysfunctional family argument in the other room. Hell, maybe you don’t even bother leaving your own house. Who needs to celebrate Easter, anyway? You’re not very religious, so what’s the point?

Adults always tell kids to enjoy their childhoods while they can. Those kids usually aren’t wide enough to heed the advice. You can go from a toddler wanting to color her hard-boiled egg just right to a exasperated adult who wishes away the holidays very quickly. It’s kind of a shame.

Tags: childhood, Christmas, Dad, Easter, easter bunny, family, grandparents, holidays, Money, water

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