Friday, December 14, 2012

Having a Barefoot Christmas (part 2)


As promised, here are more of the family's holiday traditions.

Here, even gift-giving is different.  Whereas you may attribute your presents to Santa Claus, we credit what we get to Mary Elizabeth McBiddlewhiskers, a/k/a "Biddy," the same angel that delivered us to our ideal home.  Every year, she conducts the "Biddy drop," in which an item we want for whatever reason just comes down from the sky.  It could be something we miss from our old lives or a brand-new item that we're inspired to get.  The items we want are written down, sent in the mail, and then we see if she responds on Christmas Eve.

On the day after Christmas, we commemorate Boxing Day.  It's a popular holiday in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and other countries of the British Commonwealth, but is rarely celebrated in the U.S. and certainly not as a legal holiday.  The holiday began as a way to help the poor and servants through the distribution of "Christmas boxes" filled with money and gifts.  Our idea to celebrate it came from Belinda, who got it from her teacher Shirley Mae Crabtree, who in turn read about it in one of Magdalena Babblejack's books.  On Dec. 26, Belinda and Bryson get extra gifts (in place of the poor) and we also name one "worker of the year" to get the servant's gift.  This year, Harvey is honored for especially hard work.

Finally, even though we have chosen to unhook ourselves from modern life most of the time, we do have some concessions to the fast-paced and highly evolved times in which some of us grew up.  Throughout December, we watch classic movies and TV shows on hand-cranked devices.  Our favorite films are It's A Wonderful Life and A Christmas Story, while our top TV shows are A Charlie Brown Christmas and The Year Without a Santa Claus.  In fact, we love ...Life, the 1946 classic film, so much that we have organized a live stage show based on selected scenes.  I play George Bailey, Ralph is Bill Bailey, Bobby plays Edmund Potter, Popeye is Clarence the guardian angel, Hambone is George Bailey's wife, and of course Belinda and Bryson are the Bailey kids.  We perform it twice, the day after Thanksgiving (the retail "Black Friday") and again on Christmas Eve.

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