Tomorrow is my birthday, and I am feeling old--and owing to the fact that it is December, I am reminded also of Christmas, which for me, has never been that good a holiday--

My family have always been decent--no drunken father setting fire to the Christmas tree stories, no stories about mother prostituting her self to buy pathetic little presents that melted when they got wet--but for some reason, the season has always been joyless and depressing for me--

Perhaps it is because I grew up in a cold, grey, midwestern factory town, where the sun rarely shined and when it did, you were depressed by what it was shining on--

perhaps it was because we lived in the fattest state in the union, and the idea of another fat man coming around was not that appealing, even if he was dressed in red--

On the other hand, it might have been because my mom tended to buy us broken toys because they were cheaper--I just don't know--

So tell me, am I alone?(even the Jewish kids I grew up with liked Christmas better than I did) Maybe some of you have uplifting Christmas recollections that will put me in my place as a Christmas Humbug--or maybe some others will tell me where they hide the Prozac so there will be some left after the presents are all opened on Christmas morning--

Gotta go now, I need to replace the battery in my "Grinch" watch--