Frazz by Jef Mallett for December 29, 2022

How many of you can tell us what you had for supper on the night of the 26th of December (Note that I’m not asking for something even a week ago).

(We had a delicious leeky potato soup with some asparagus rounds in it. And home baked Rhodes rolls.)

Sixty years later I still remember some of my favorite Xmas presents, as well as some less-favorites, and from whom they were received. If kids don’t remember now, they must be getting too much of nothing special.

In my childhood household, in 2 weeks everything would be broken..

One year I got a Daisy BB gun and another year, a bike. They were both special.

Leftover roast beast (in this case, ham), cavatappi alfredo, green beans & the last of the jello mold.

I think young people today have too much stuff. I remember so presents I got decades later because I didn’t have tons of toys. It also meant I never got bored with the toys I did have.

</old man mode>

The logic is overwhelming.

Repeated hype and glitz fix images of goodies in children’s minds so firmly they can’t help knowing them without aids until they get them. Use shows them how actually limited are the promises of fun and forever play. Disappointment comes very soon after. The ‘high’ vanishes and one is left with what is real and now and the ho-hum of a future with no new goodies in view.

It’s called life and adults also are not immune.

My fondest memories of Christmas past are books. We could look a want Santa brought, but could open nothing. Our stockings however were free game. Mine always had BOOKS! I couldn’t wait to get started on them!

Maybe she asked for a more realistic skin color?

“When I was growing up, we were so poor that, if I hadn’t been born a boy, I wouldn’t have had anything to play with.” —Rodney Dangerfield, American comedian

I had a bacon, lettuce, tomatoe and avocado sandwith in a French roll. Food, I remember!

This thread led me to look for some old photos from my childhood Christmases. When I was nearly two, I got a J. Fred Muggs chimpanzee doll and one of my favorite books, “Just So Stories” by Kipling.

I loved “Just So Stories.” Especially the story of the Elephant Child. The great green greasy Limpopo River, all set about with fever trees.

I suspect that what Frazz and the girl say is true for the most part. But, I doubt that a child her age would come to the realization of what she says in the last panel.