Merry Christmas and I hope next year is even merrier!

Tell me this isn’t the saddest Santa Claus you have ever seen. That’s my dad in the pony cart. This was taken in the late 1920s/early 1930s. Our family dubbed this photo “The Depression Santa Claus.”

There were times when my children were little when we didn’t have the funds to provide a big avalanche of presents. We made do. Whenever I fret that we fell short as parents, I remember this photo. Times are tough all the time. Maybe the flush times are the rarities.

This image stands as a stark reminder that not everyone’s holiday is bright and merry. Every year, many of us face challenges, economically and spiritually, that seem insurmountable at the time. But we persevere.

Why? Because the story of Christmas gives us hope, and that is no small gift.

As a child I hoped for toys, lots and lots of toys, tangible tokens of how much I was loved. I was around nine when the best presents appeared under the tree: the snowman Sno-cone maker and my very own Coca-Cola dispenser. Too soon, I discovered the downside of such luxuries. I ran out of flavorings for the snow cone maker and Ma never got around to buying me more. Buying my own at nine must have been beyond my thinking. The Coke dispenser was cute but not practical. It was simply a lot easier to grab one out of the fridge. And the bottles never really got cold.

Live and learn. Perhaps that is the real lesson of Christmas!

Now my hope is for the world to improve, so my grandchildren have the best life possible.

As an old fogie, I can look out at the world and be astounded at the lack of hope. I find the news cycle overwhelming and often turn it off to preserve my sanity.

Still, even during the Depression, they didn’t give up on Christmas. They went through the motions and forged a path forward. Santa may have looked like he’d keel over if he had a decent meal and I want to gather up that pony in my arms and nurse him back to health, but my father had a photo with Santa. His parents persevered.

What gifts did this little boy hope for? Were there toys under his tree that year? Dad never mentioned any physical deprivations in his life, so maybe the picture at home wasn’t as bleak as this one.

I hope so, anyway.

And hope is what we are all wishing for. Hope that we can make sense of this wild and crazy world of ours. Hope that our children and grandchildren will be blessed.

No matter that the world throws at us, we persevere.

We hope.

Peace on earth. Good will toward men!