Season's Greetings

Once the Thanksgiving holiday is over, Christmas is just around the corner. Many cities sponsor　tree light-up ceremonies in early December. Schools, kindergartens and preschools host nice holiday shows with lots of songs, dances, plays, concerts, and much more. Everybody becomes very busy shopping for the presents, decorating their houses with treasured holiday ornaments, putting up the nice Christmas trees in their living rooms, and lighting up their houses and front yards. As the song say, "It 's the most wonderful time of the year."

When it comes to Christmas song albums,　various artists release their special collections just for the holidays. To me, Carpenters' Christmas album is the absolute classic and I never get tired of listening to Karen's pure voice every year. This year I've found another superb Christmas album by Jewel. Her album is very spiritual and I'm writing this letter while listening to it. (If you like to recommend any other great albums, please let me know.)

During the holiday season, people are in high spirit and kids are all excited about wondering which presents they should request to Santa. Once the kids learn how to write, many of them write letters to Santa in North Pole. When my kids were smaller, they used to write the letters in their classrooms. Then, their teachers secretly passed the letters to the parents. I believe that they did it up until the 2nd or 3rd grade (7 or 8 year old), depending on the teachers, when the kids start to doubt if Santa Claus really exists and their parents may have been playing his role. My 15-year-old son still writes an intricate letter to Santa and tries to have me or my husband read it somehow…

Hiding the presents until Christmas Eve is often a challenging task for the parents and many small kids insist on staying up all night to greet Santa right by the fireplace. Some kids cries for not having chimneys in their houses or apartments. In such cases, their parents tell to soothe them that Santa can enter from the windows, too. Then the kids insist on leaving the windows open (and staying up) all night to make sure that Santa can crawl in.

If you would like to know Santa's whereabouts on Christmas Eve, you can find it at www.noradsanta.org (in Japanese, too!) When you visit this site, please make sure to read the famous Virginia's letter and the response of The New York Sun newspaper. (both in English and Japanese) It is very nice and touching.

As far as Christmas decorations are concerned, many city streets, stores and restaurants are dressed up with red and green colors. At night, it is fun to cruise around the neighborhood to see the beautiful holiday light displays of the houses, trees and streets. Sometimes I become totally fascinated with the gorgeous lightings and find my car stopped in the middle of the street. If you are not sure where to find the best light displays in your area, you can usually find the list and driving directions at the local visitors bureau's home page.

In my neighborhood, the Balian House (the owner's house of Balian Ice Cream Company) is most popular and displays 10,000 colored lights and numerous holiday depictions all over its huge lawn. Even sightseeing buses stop in front of this mansion. "Upper Hastings Ranch" area is also very popular, where each block of the area displays a common theme and competes with each other. Of course, regular houses do not go that far with their displays, but they are still beautiful and enchanting.

I guess my letter is becoming too long, and I should stop here. I have too many things I want to write about Christmas. (I can keep on writing forever.)

I hope that you all have a very happy holiday season and that the coming year brings many good things for you.

With warmest regards,
Machiko
My Best English

＊写真上、中はBalian House、
下は、"Upper Hastings Ranch" です。