Merry Christmas

If you don’t celebrate Christmas, please, don’t take offense. I stopped going to church when I was twelve, and for over a decade in Russia celebrated according to local custom, opening presents pod yolochki (under the holiday tree) on New Year’s Day. This day is about time off, patriotically raising consumer spending statistics, and sharing a few morning smiles with loved ones.

As a young adult I was a misanthrope who dreaded Christmas. Now I’m the same age as the Grinch, I think — “For fifty-three years I’ve put up with it now!” — but with three little boys who check to see if Santa drank the milk, who can be a pessimist? Dear readers, thank you from all of us at Racket, and please give us the gift of forgetting the world’s miseries today. Merry Christmas!