So, it’s the holiday season — a time of good cheer, gift giving and for overdoing it big time. As you get older and your children have families of their own you realize that Christmas is really for kids, especially those who still believe in Jolly Old Saint Nick.

Back in my younger days I used to prepare almost the entire Thanksgiving dinner for family and friends with some assistance from my wife, Ann. I stopped doing that when it got to the point that when dinner was served, I was almost too exhausted to eat.

For a while my wife and daughter helped but we’ve found that the best idea at Thanksgiving is to sponge off our children. This year we will be celebrating Thanksgiving with our daughter and family who live outside of Albany. I may prepare part of Thanksgiving breakfast but from that point on it will be all about eating dinner and perhaps having a celebratory adult drink or two.

This year, instead of driving we are taking the Amtrak Maple Leaf service from Depew to Albany. It costs about the same as going by car when you add up the cost of gas and thruway tolls. Perhaps most importantly, we won’t have to worry about the weather and also we will arrive reasonably rested.

For Christmas I will be putting up lights on the outside of our house as I have done for the last 45 years. My wife says that I haven’t, but I have been cutting back on the number of lights since reaching a peak about 10 years ago. Most of the display is now at ground level allowing me to spend less time climbing a ladder.

In the days when my daughter and two sons were in high school, if they were leaving a school event on a December evening someone in the group would often remark about the glow emanating from below near Main Street. They would always explain that the glow was the work of their “crazy father.”

Also, there was a Silver Creek Central bus driver who would give me a head’s up so that on a particular day the lights would come early so the kids on his bus could see them in all their Christmas glory.

We do less decorating inside. Last year we bought a 6-foot tall imitation “needle” Christmas tree that fits nicely into a corner of the living room but now rests securely covered in our basement still fully decorated. My wife will also probably display her collection of Nativities sets. One of these days we might be down to one of those ceramic trees with little lights like my grandmother once had.

After having spent twenty-five years in retail management, I do most of my Christmas shopping online. I shop locally during the year but for me it is simpler and yes warmer to do Christmas shopping online although my wife does a lot of her Christmas shopping locally. With most of my retail experience in the catalog showroom business shopping online is almost like shopping with the old Brand Names Catalog at Christmas.

Personally, I’m not a white Christmas kind of guy, despite enjoying Bing Crosby’s rendition of Irving Berlin’s song of the same name. To me it’s better to dream of a white Christmas then actually have one. The holidays come at the coldest, stormiest, and gloomiest time of year. I know that many of you enjoy winter sports like skiing, snowboarding, ice skating, tobogganing, and snowmobiling where the silence of a pristine woods covered in deep white snow (at least every few years now) is shattered and hibernating forest creatures are awakened from their winter slumber by roaring gasoline engines.

Still, I sort of hope you skiers, sledders, and snowmobilers get more snow this year than last year. As for me, my idea of winter sports is catching an occasional Sabres game in Buffalo but if the weather is too cold then I’m content to watch it on TV.

I think it would be interesting to experience a Christmas in Australia where it is celebrated in high summer at the beach or around what they commonly refer to as the backyard “barbie” not to be confused with the doll. A traditional Christmas lunch feast with family and friends, often features prawns, which are a kind of big shrimp, and oysters cooked on the barbie and supplemented with roast turkey and all the trimmings. Summer weather and turkey and all the trimmings however does seem a strange combination, at least to me.

Australians also celebrate something called Yuletide or Yulefest in July with family and friends during their winter. It even snows in several states including New South Wales, Tasmania, South Australia and Victoria. New South Wales is home to the Snowy Mountains which receive an average snowfall of 1.9 meters equal to about 6.25 feet. New South Wales even boasts several Alpine ski resorts.

So, to all, enjoy the holidays whether it’s white or green or even if you happen to be in Australia.

Thomas Kirkpatrick Sr. is a Silver Creek resident. Send comments to editorial@observertoday.com.