Christmas in Dixie

I spent the Christmas holiday with my family in sleepy Meridian, Mississippi. When we are all together, conversation invariably turns to the olden days. Daddy told us this year about his father's going to town on Christmas Eve 1940-something and buying 2 crates of oranges and 2 crates of apples. He dispersed one crate of each of the fruits to the sharecroppers on the farm and reserved the rest for his 8 children, wife, and mother. That was Christmas. No stockings, no gift cards, no need for wrapping paper and ribbons. And everyone was thrilled with the extravagant gift!
Today I feel guily for remembering with disappointment the Christmas I wished for a cookie shooter...a contraption you could pack with cookie dough and press a button to create cookies in a myriad of shapes and sizes. I didn't get it. And this Christmas I wished for an espresso machine. I didn't get it. Now I can afford to buy both, but I need neither. And I think these lessons from my parents' childhoods have sunk in to the point where I realize "need" is more important that "want" at Christmas. Which leads me to this summation--from whom I don't remember--" If you don't need it, it ain't worth a bucket of warm spit."