In a Dec. 24, 1984 home video, a young Charlie Demers rattles off an extravagant list of all the toys he thinks Santa is going to bring him while, in the background, his father raises his eyebrows and breaks out in hysterical, but silent, laughter.
Its going to be a very disappointing Christmas, his dad pipes up after regaining his composure.
Demers, a writer, comedian and regular on CBC Radio Ones The Debaters, was one of the storytellers at The Flame: Holiday Season Edition at The Cultch, where he suggested a Christmas letdown might be just what children need.
For gentile kids in North America, Christmas morning is, of course, the gold standard for childhood magic, Demers says.
But in that magic, he explains, lies the threat of grave disappointment that comes from reality failing to live up to childhood imagination, and, more importantly, childhood avarice.
Demers recalls one Christmas when his aunt received a Care Bears piggy bank in her stocking.
I was convinced that this had to be some kind of clerical mixup. Obviously this piggy bank was meant for me, because I wanted it.
Demers stamped his feet, cried and begged, all to no avail. In the end, though, he was glad his aunt didnt just hand over the gift, because seeing it in her room served as a reminder that you cant always get what you want.
In later years, Demers became an older-brother figure to his aunts two sons, 14 and 16 years his junior, and bore witness to their Christmas morning greed. One year he gave the boys glossy Harry Potter calendars.
The gifts were no sooner opened than discarded swallowed up in this avalanche of wrapping paper and merchandise, he recalls. Hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars worth of presents did nothing to satiate the invincible want of childhood.
Once his cousins had unwrapped everything, they launched into a litany of wrongdoings, listing all the items they had not received. Demers was horrified, his Christmas morning stripped of joy. I had to rush to fill the void with gravy, he says.
The following year, a very broke Demers bought cheap Hindu icons he had found in his Little India neighbourhood for his cousins.
He was so dreading his cousins reactions that he barely noticed how much things had changed.
They were opening their presents more slowly this year, he says. Their eyes were pie-plated in excitement and gratefulness.
The boys seemed genuinely thrilled with their Ganesha figurines and it occurred to Demers that kids are ever changing. They may be overcome by greed one year, but its up to those who love them whether they stay that way.
Demers concluded his holiday tale with a piece of advice for the audience: Give your child the joy and the gift of disappointment, because this years Christmas disappointment is next years Christmas miracle.
The Flame: Holiday Season Editionispresented with Metro Vancouver as part of itsCreate Memories, Not Garbagecampaign. Watch local performers tell their memorable Christmas stories at MetroVancouver.org.
