The Popcorn Stand: In my day Christmas...

First off I want to thank CBS. This past Tuesday night at 8 p.m., I was a kid again. I was about 9.

“In my day” (I used to hate it when older people said that when I was a kid), Christmas was a lot more special.

You didn’t have the 25 Days of Christmas which I think now have become the So Many Number of Days Before The 25 Days of Christmas. “In my day,” Christmas wasn’t swallowed up into this two-month Hallothanksmas routine we now go through every year.

“In my day” the Christmas season — I mean the heart of the Christmas season — was really say about 10 days or so to maybe three weeks at the most. The Christmas season really didn’t get into full gear until we got out of school for Christmas vacation a little more than a week before Christmas.

The Christmas specials were something to REALLY look forward to and didn’t start coming on television until maybe the first week of Christmas at the earliest. So maybe I wished CBS had waited until this Tuesday, December 6, to make me feel like a kid again, but I really can’t quibble.

“In my day” there was one really special Christmas show on every night for maybe about three weeks at the most. ONE. So you really looked forward to it when it came on.

Whether it was Frosty The Snowman. Or the Charlie Brown Christmas Special. Or Santa Claus Is Coming to Town. Or since I was always into sports my personal favorite The Bob Hope Christmas Special which always aired the Sunday before the Sunday before Christmas.

The only reason why I really watched The Bob Hope Christmas Special was because about midway through the show Hope would always announce that year’s Associated Press College Football All-american team. It was one of those Christmas traditions.

As an old fuddy, duddy I start to think Christmas isn’t as special any more we’ve with all the clutter that’s become the Hallowthanksmas season. I think we’ve lost a lot of those Christmas traditions we once cherished.

But last Tuesday one of those Christian traditions returned. Last Tuesday at 8 p.m. there wasn’t elevently billion channels and live streaming services or whatever they are, there was just three networks — ABC, CBS and NBC.

And just one of them was showing the Christmas special to be featured that night. And on Tuesday it was CBS.

CBS showed the original “Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer.” Of course what’s been lost has been the wonderful message that classic presented.

Rudolph was a misfit who couldn’t fit in who befriended an elf who couldn’t fit in who ended up on the Island of Misfit Toys who couldn’t fit in. Is that message timeless? Ya think? Of course it is.

Especially today with all the mental health issues our youth — heck our adults — face in today’s society. But I have to admit I wasn’t really thinking about how socially relevant and timeless Rudolph was in today’s society when I watched it on Tuesday night. I was just a 9-year-old kid again watching a Christmas special I always looked forward to before I had to go to bed.

With each Hallowthanksmas season I’ve been longing more for those Christmas traditions. Maybe that’s why this year I watched “The Homecoming, A Christmas Story” — the 1971 CBS television movie that led to the television series “The Waltons.” I guess all these live streaming services are good for something.

So in the end I realize Christmas is just as special as it ever was despite it becoming Hallowthanksmas. Because I can go to one of those live streaming things I hate so much and love to bash and watch “The Homecoming.” Because CBS showed Rudolph. Memories were created just like when I was a kid.

Of course I always realize Christmas is just as special as you make it.

So as an old fuddy duddy in the end I realize despite what Hallowthanksmas has done to the Christmas season, Christmas is just as special as ever.