tenaciousg3

I Need a little Christmas, right this very minute...

Hello all my SG friends. I'm writing to you to shamelessly ask for a little help in uplifting my holiday spirit. I realize of course that many of you are also not so psyched-up about the holidays either. Maybe this can help all of us a little, who knows.

See, Christmas has always been a very special time for me since I was a little kid. I come from a very large Italian family. Every year, when I was little, the family would have a HUGE Christmas party - literally hundreds of relatives participating in a huge potluck dinner at the American Legion hall we would rent out on Christmas Eve night. One of the cousins would volunteer to dress as Santa and pass out toys to all the kids. It was just this great big giant family event. Christmas Day was also a big event. I lived on the same street as my Granparents and a couple of Aunts, and all my immediate family relatives lived nearby. Christmas Day was filled with family, great food, presents and just a generally great time.

Since moving to California over 20 years ago, things have changed obviously. My parents live close by, but now I'm lucky if I get to see my extended family once every other year. All my grandparents are gone now, my young cousins grown up, my extended family spread out all over the country. I miss those experiences so much, the warmth of being surrounded by my family, the events, the food, the friendship, the shopping for everyones presents... the entire experience. I miss it all terribly. Things were starting to look up in recent years - I had a beautiful wife and with the addition of her extended family it was starting to develop into the great big Christmastime experience I had as a child once again. Well now that is gone too - this is the first Christmas I will spend without her entirely, and I will not be able to get back East to visit my family there. I also lost many close friends in the fallout of my relationship, as it directly involved one of them, which kinda had a chain reaction and spread. I am of course thankful to have my parents with me, that's for sure, but it is just not the same without the big family & friends & the entire experience that goes with it. I've lost my spririt this year...

I realize that nothing will replace those experiences, or the feelings I've had in the past. I need to make new ones, generate new traditions, illicit new feelings. I'm all for that. No point in dwelling completely in the past, in things I can't change. This year I could just use a little boost - a little jolt to my holiday spirit that I feel I have lost. I am already giving some gifts to some needy kids, that sort of thing, which helps... but it's not really what I'm looking for. Honestly I don't even know completely what I'm looking for - I just know, like the song says; "I need a little Christmas, right this very minute..."

Can anyone help?

***EDIT*** Thank you thank you thank you to everyone so far for their warm wishes and great suggestions. Many of you have sugested either doing something charitable, or doing something involving church. I appreciate your suggestions, very much, but you should know a couple things. One, I am already doing some chariatble things this christmas, giving gifts to some local needy children & stuff. As for church? Well - let's just say that I am not at all religious, nearly an atheist really, and going to church for the most part is just not going to work for me. I don't mean to be ungrateful for your suggestions - I am VERY appreciative - I just wanted you to know where I'm comin' from. Thanks everyone!