Paul was “simply having a wonderful Christmas time.”

Paul was

Paul was the muzak piped through the phone system whenever a customer was put on hold. Only once or twice would it ever be heard in a day, as most people hung up with a quick:

“I’m not interested.”

Though, when he got to hit the hold button Paul let the songs linger, for if he had gotten a caller along this far they were buying. & now holiday themed tunes were played to reflect the season, though in saying they were holiday themed Paul never heard a Hanukah or Kwanza song.

Mostly White Christmas.

 

So he changed his script with a swift pencil mark to remind himself for these weeks that while putting someone on hold he could say:

 “Please enjoy this holiday music while I process your request.”                     

Paul was

 

“The mood is right
The spirits up
We’re here tonight
And that’s enough…”

Paul was the organizer of reindeer games. Monopoly was their favorite game & Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer their favorite movie. So intertwined were the two, new rules had been adopted into the game, & cues from the movie changed play. New pieces were tiny & misshapen handmade clay lumps representing their favorite characters, a white ball as a tooth for Paul to be Hermey, guy’s favorite was a little gold snake shape for King Moonraiser, the winged lion king for the island of misfit toys, and a red blob as Rudolph’s nose for Lorraine.

“Go to Jail” was “Go to the Bumbels Cave” and the property spaces had new paper names tapped to them, like Rudolph’s House, the Island of Misfit Toys, and Yukon Cornelius’s Pepermint Mine.

Set out in his living room with looping Christmas movies playing, Paul, Guy, and Loraine would spend days in these matches rolling dice & drinking sodas, snow flurries falling outdoors.

Paul was the marketing machine known as XMAS. The word itself the poorest abbreviation for the busiest of times. Commercial splendor, product placement with song & television tie ins & the idea of full display cases, though Wal-Mart is not a main street nostalgia, just a big box holding & exploding all of the above. & this year’s hot toy. & long lines.

 

This is where the true meaning of Christmas would be inserted.

A list with a bicycle on it. Digging though stockings last. Endless loops of Christmas carols, old versions revised with today’s pop stars. & then your favorite song. Driving through town looking at decorated houses, Paul yelling “Christmas lights on my side” to drown out his sister Loraine’s “Christmas lights on my side.”  

 

So this is Christmas.