MOFB’s Cut to the Chase: Dashing through the snow in a four-wheel drive SUV

Many Christmas traditions do not seem so relevant in today’s modern world. For example, when is the last time you went "dashing through the snow in a one-horse open sleigh?" Maybe I should ask if you ever rode in a sleigh pulled by a horse over snow covered ground – chances are you have not, even if you live in the country.

You may still go "over the river and through the woods" to get to your grandparents’ house if you live in a rural area, but even then it would not be in a one-horse open sleigh. Odds are a lot better you travel over the highways and through the suburbs to get to your grandparents’ condo in your four-wheel drive SUV or pickup.

While four-wheel drive is very good in the snow, odds are not very good you will need four-wheel drive this Christmas. We may be dreaming of a White Christmas, but having a white Christmas is not as common as it once was. Call it global warming or whatever you want, but children today do not often get the opportunity to see reindeer tracks in the snow.

Not many years ago, people in the city and country heated their homes with fireplaces instead of the electric or gas central heat so prevalent today, so in those days Santa landed his reindeer on the roof so he could be closer to the chimney.

When asking how Santa could bring gifts since our home had no chimney, my parents explained how the reindeer landed on the front lawn and used the front door. That made sense to me, though I was disappointed we didn’t have a chimney for Santa – especially since our house had a flat roof to make his landings much safer than on all those steeply pitched roofs in the fancy neighborhoods with fireplaces and chimneys.

Many foods once commonly associated with Christmas are no longer popular. Plum pudding is a dessert hardly found on many tables at Christmas dinner in this day and age, and mincemeat pie and fruitcake seem to be on the Christmas endangered dessert list.

When I was a kid, we actually had Christmas carolers stop at our front door and sing songs of the season for us. This was more common in the city than the country since our houses were so close together. It was a wonderful gesture by caring neighbors, but today it seems many people don’t even know their neighbors. Is it safe to open your door to a group of singing strangers?

Christmas today is not like it used to be, but horse-drawn sleighs or not, snow or not, plum pudding or not, and carolers or not, Christmas is just as wonderful to youngsters as it ever was. The bad economy may cut down on expensive presents, but perhaps it takes times like these to help us remember that even in a worldwide recession, it is still Christmas.

(Denny Banister, of Jefferson City, is the assistant director of public affairs for the Missouri Farm Bureau, the state’s largest farm organization.)