Old-Fashioned Holiday

Our Old-Fashion Christmas

My brother was playing a Christmas song on the piano. My mom was hanging up Christmas lights. My dad was talking about the tree, but no one was listening. My older sister Marlene was stressing about her what to get her friends for the holidays. Considering Thanksgiving had just ended, I wasn’t too concerned with Christmas stuff. Me? I was sitting there making Christmas cards with construction paper. Okay, so I was doing something Christmassy. Anyway, it wasn’t really working out. I’ve never been good at this type of thing.

I turned to the TV then. There was an older man, and Christmas music was playing in the background. The man explained that there was a contest for the person who could tell about what their dream Christmas would be. You could get filmed having your dream holiday if it was chosen.

This made me think. All we cared about were presents, and buying things. I was tired of everyone only caring about this. My dream holiday would be everyone not worrying about buying the right things.

“Nina! Help Mom out with the lights!” Marlene shouted. I groaned. I didn’t really feel like helping, considering I had just come up with the greatest idea ever.

After I was done helping, I began to write out a letter to the TV station. I decided my family would have an old-fashioned Christmas, like the kind of Christmas from a hundred years ago, where people made their own gifts, and the most important thing was everyone getting together.

I mailed it and waited for about a week, checking the mailbox everyday. But nothing came.

I got home from school one day, and sat at my desk to start my homework. I was pretty mad about the contest. Then the doorbell rang. No one else went to get it, so I trudged to the door, and looked through the hole in the door. There was a man in a suit at the door.

“Ummm... hello?” I said. We weren’t expecting anyone. At least I didn’t think we were.

“Hello, I’m Richard Miles, from KY34 TV. I’m here to meet the lucky prizewinner of our Dream Christmas Contest. Are you the homeowner?” He said this so calmly; I didn’t believe him at first. Then I screamed. I had won the contest!

I was so excited as I ran to get Mom. I had to explain everything, because I had not told her about the contest yet. She looked a little bewildered at everything, but she agreed to sign the contract with the station.

Marlene, Mom and Jake (my little brother who plays the piano), all got together to discuss how we would do our old-fashioned Christmas. Dad was at work, so we called him. We would have to make this holiday be old-fashioned, even though it would be tough.

The filming crew showed up the next day. There were about six people all together. We had planned to go to the tree farm today. The camera crew was nice, but the people who owned the tree farm were annoyed by us. Later on, we went to the shopping mall to buy gifts. Even Marlene, who is obsessed with shopping, seemed upset about the way the other customers and store owners were treating us. It was really strange. All I could think about was how it wasn’t supposed to happen this way.