I’m thankful
that throughout my life the holidays have always been a time to
indulge my inner geek and share it with others. It’s become a quiet
tradition, not always something planned, but something that simply
happens on its own. But before I wander into my rambling missive on
the subject, I want to wish all Hobby Games Recce readers, everyone
who supports my gaming efforts here, at Griffon Publishing Studio,
and elsewhere, a joyous and geeky holiday season...or, if you prefer,
Christma-yu-kwanza-kah-nalia (hopefully you can find your specific
holiday somewhere in there).
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“And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?” |
The holidays
bring out some of the most sacred family traditions among western
cultures (and I’m assuming among some non-western cultures, too).
Growing up we had some pretty standardized practices adjusted over
time for our ages, involvement in religious rituals, and other
changing factors: the Christmas tree went up and was lit according to
a particular schedule; trains often ran around it to enhance the
holiday’s playful spirit; we shared a traditional Christmas Eve
dinner of ham, potatoes, pinkelwurst, and kale, with stollen and
cookies for dessert, with a full turkey dinner on Christmas Day (I
have no idea where my parents found the energy to do both); we opened
presents, one at a time, taking turns in order from oldest to
youngest (I assume as a lesson in patience for us younger folk); and,
of course, we attended church at some point, first the early evening
children’s pageant, later the spectacle of midnight mass with
music, lights, and ceremony rivaling the Radio City Music Hall
Christmas Spectacular. Even though the years have passed and I’m
married with a child of my own, our household’s new traditions have
evolved, some carried over from our treasured past and others we
establish together as a family. We still set up a tree and trains,
but we also festoon the front of the house with modest holiday lights
and, when I bother, decorate our eight foot-tall sasquatch stand-up,
“Skookums,” in the front yard (left over from Halloween); I bake
stollen to give as gifts to friends and family; we enjoy the
traditional ham dinner, though we graze through leftovers on
subsequent days; and we open presents Christmas morning instead of
Christmas Eve with a sense of well-ordered chaos.
When we were
kids our parents encouraged us to pursue various interests. The
holidays were a great opportunity to reinforce those. Trips to New
York City often included a visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art
and its amazing arms and armor collection and its ancient Egyptian
galleries (including the complete Temple of Dendur). Christmas gifts
included a new
Star Wars or Middle-earth calendar, soundtracks
to my favorite movies from that year, books relevant to my interests,
and some roleplaying game resource or board game. After opening
presents Christmas Eve we each retreated into our own world,
immersing ourselves in books and toys until sleep (or church)
demanded our attention.
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Holiday tradition: a guest reads
The Littlest Shoggoth.... |
Even as we grow
older and become parents, having geeky holidays remains important.
Our season always gets off to an early start because we celebrate my
son’s birthday about a week before the actual winter holidays. This
year we enjoyed some extra bits of geekiness and reinforced some
established geeky traditions. For the past few years we’ve managed
to attend one of the
Greenberg Train Shows in our area and find an
Aristo-Craft holiday car to add to the G-scale train circling the
Christmas tree (this year it was a gingerbread-themed passenger car
with interior lights and a smoking stovepipe). My brother – my
son’s “alpha” uncle – not only brought his old Britains
Deetail knights for the Little Guy, but managed to bring me some
dollar packs of
Armies in Plastic men now available in Just-A-Buck
stores in New York and Ohio. When we had a few friends over for a
holiday gathering we asked one of them to read our son a
“traditional” holiday tale, Stan!’s
The Littlest Shoggoth.
After the usual Christmas Eve dinner we settled down to watch the
heartwarming
Elf to remind us about the holiday spirit.
I received some
game- and geek-related goodies this year – a 12 foot-long Fourth
Doctor Who scarf my wife knitted,
The Lord of the Rings: Journey
to Mordor game from a friend, the soundtrack to
Jason and the
Argonauts, the Safari Ltd. cryptozoology toob, and a rolling cart
for my wargmaming miniatures. I also reveled in my seven year-old son
indulging his own geeky pursuits. Although he got a smattering of
Star Wars and
Harry Potter gifts, this year he’s into
Pokemon...shirts, plush Pokemon, plastic figures, Pokeballs, the
Pokemon Cookbook, etc. As dutiful, geeky parents we got him a
learn-to-play starter set for the card game; we’ve already played
through the tutorial version and several games with the 30-card decks
on our own. We’ll see if it takes...and then decide whether to go
to the next level and get some full, 60-card pre-constructed theme
decks to play.
In the past
I’ve discussed how the holidays seem tinged with elements of
fantasy (
“The Season for Fantasy”) and recalled a fond New Year’s
Eve rife with gaming and geekdom (
“New Year’s Eve Gaming”).
It’s a time when kids are off from school and adults take off from
work, friends gather, and we have time to spend reveling in the
fantasies of the season. Individuals indulge their geeky pursuits to
differing degrees within their own, everyday lives, depending on free
time, spare cash, and other opportunities. The holidays bring us
together to spend time with each other and share a bit of ourselves:
conversation, meals, gifts, good cheer...and our geeky interests.
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