Andy Tauer, Christmas Memories, and Letting Go

…and a draw By Tom I’m just going to say it.  I’m not big on  Christmas. I was when I was a kid of course.  Every year my family made it an event.  We decorated with a capital “D”.  Lights were strung.  Electric candles were placed in all of the street-side windows on our corner lot and the tree went up in the big bay window.  That tree was a devilishly complex fake one that consisted of individual branches that had to be placed into the wooden stand, and carefully packed lest it become a wire and plastic rubik’s cube. Then there were the ornaments.  These ranged from generic lights in strings to things that us kids made each year to items that had been around for decades.  The trimming of the tree and the house took at least a full day and outside help, and there were people who would drive out of their way to see it.  Was it tasteful?  Well it wasn’t like some that could be seen from space, but I think it might not have qualified as “quiet good taste” Like all kids at Christmas we’d wake up at about 5 ready to open the gifts.  We were expected to have breakfast as normal and then open our gifts in an orderly fashion, rather than attacking them like a group of sharks in chum-laden water.  It killed us to do so.  After we’d opened out gifts and played with them was the afternoon Christmas open house, with the food we’d all helped (in whatever way we could until we grew older) prepare, and the adult libations we kids were desperate to try to sneak a sip of. Later in life my BFF moved with her family and my godchild to Los Angeles.  Over the years we spent our Christmases together, which meant that I usually got a call at 7 or so asking that I come over right away since said child didn’t want to open anything until I was there, and could I pick up some cream or something for the dinner we’d prepare.  We’d have breakfast together as my Godchild was forced to sit there, vibrating like a tuning fork just like I did, awaiting the gifts.  There was also earlier the setting up of their tree,; theirs natural but still with ornaments that came out every year, some made by hand, some from decades ago.  The dinner we all prepared was composed of friends dropping in and trying to keep the teens from snagging any of the adult libations we were enjoying. So why don’t I like Christmas? It ends.  My teen Christmas ended when my father died in December and that tree stayed up in the box.  My adult Christmas died when my godchild’s father decided just after Christmas to end his marriage, and my BFF moved back to New York where the godchild was in college. I’m not asking for pity.  We make the holidays what we make them.  As a matter of fact I’m going this year to a latke party that some friends of mine are having, but didn’t think I’d attend since they thought I’d be celebrating Christmas.  I’ll be very happy celebrating potato pancakes, and tasting a different family's holiday tradition.  Mazel Tov, Merry Christmas, and Happy Holidays: they are what you make of them, and I sincerely hope yours are fulfilling.  Notes on the draw:  The prize is a full bottle at the choice of the winner. The winner can select from any fragrance that Andy sells on tauerperfumes.com or a bottle of Miriam, the Tableau de Parfums scent, or the Cologne du Maghreb.  (lucky you) the draw will be open the 24 hours of December 11th and is open to all countries (Andy will be shipping directly from Zurich)  Tune in tomorrow to see who won, and check out the other participants by visiting his website.