I’m a ’50s baby and grew up with television as a friend. I still had to go outside daily, no matter the weather, “to let the stink blow off you” as my mom use to tell me. (I wondered why she said that because I couldn’t smell any stink on me and I took a bath every night.) I also loved to read.

Fast forward to today and not too much has changed. I still go outside to let the stink blow off me, still love to read, and in the last year found the Hallmark Channel movies. I especially love the Christmas ones.

After the first few I noticed there seemed to be a certain criteria for all their Christmas movies. Musts: bake cookies; decorate the Christmas tree; buy and wrap presents; ice skating; build a snowman; snow; go sledding or on a sleigh ride; snowball fights; snow angels; hot chocolate; make a gingerbread house; kiss underneath the mistletoe; some sort of celebration/festival/gala; some sort of drama/conflict; and a love story.

So I decided I wanted to live out a Hallmark Christmas movie and set out to check off the criteria.

One Sunday afternoon my mom, sister, two nieces, great-nephew and I baked a variety of our favorite Christmas cookies. Drama? Well yeah, if you count running out of sprinkles. Check.

It took two days but the house and tree were decorated right after Thanksgiving. Drama? Three days after, we were enjoying a long winter’s evening in front of the TV when it suddenly became a little darker.

“Hmmm. I think we lost some lights on the tree,” observed Harry.

Sheesh. The tree is only in its third year, but these pre-lit Christmas trees are not all they’re cracked up to be. The day before Christmas Eve even more lights burned out. Harry dug out a leftover strand of lights and with some Christmas magic, filled in the darkened holes. Christmas tree saved. Drama and check.

I spent a whole day on the computer and bought all my Christmas presents. Check. Drama? You bet! I was left wondering and waiting for all said presents to arrive in time, especially for those that had to be sent to my daughter in Texas. I spent another whole day wrapping all the said presents. I mailed the Texas box Dec. 8. They still have not been delivered. Hers to us? Still not delivered.

How to check ice skating off my list? I haven’t been on ice skates since … ? Yeah, it’s been that long. So no, I was not going to spend Christmas in a cast. What to do? Why, put on a pair of soft socks and take a running shot and slide down our long hallway’s hardwood floor. Wheeeeeee! Check!

I did not build a snowman. But I did paint one. That’s a check in my book!

Miracle of miracles, we had 12 inches of snow! We went to my mom’s to watch my 3-year-old great-nephew’s reaction to sleigh riding, something I loved to do as a kid myself. I wanted to take the sled and whoosh down the hill, but the last time I was on a sled I was a wife and mother. My younger sister sat in front and I in back. We drove right into a tree that resulted in a trip to the ER for her, and left me with a pair of broken eyeglasses and sore all over. (She had not broken anything but was very bruised.) Instead Harry and I contented ourselves watching the younger generations have a great time sledding. Then my great-nephew and I had a vigorous snowball battle which ended up with us both making snow angels. Afterward, snug as a bug in a rug, I enjoyed a yummy cup of hot chocolate while watching, yes you guessed it, a Hallmark Christmas movie. Check, check and check!

One night having just finished a Hallmark Christmas movie that featured a gingerbread house contest, I thought, “We need to do that at our church!” So that Sunday, I announced we were going to have a gingerbread house contest. I cheated and bought a gingerbread train kit. Harry and I spent the Saturday before the deadline building it. Drama? Only if you count having completed the whole thing, then decided I needed to connect the coal car to the engine and watch the coal car totally fall apart, after I had thrown all the icing away. I decided to cheat yet again and hot glued it back together. Yes, in a real gingerbread house competition that would be grounds for disqualification. But since I didn’t plan on accepting any prize if I had won, I really didn’t care. We had seven entries and they were all beautiful. It was a lot of fun. Check!

Mistletoe. Nary a twig of it can be found in our home. So does kissing underneath the covers on Christmas Eve count? It does in my book, so, check!

COVID-19 has Scrooged any kind of Christmas celebrations/festivities/galas. The only one that really matters is the observance of the Christ child’s holy birth, and nothing can cancel that as long as you hold the true meaning of Dec. 25 in your heart. So yeah, a big fat CHECK!

All that was left on the list was a Christmas love story.

To be continued …