Christmas Wishes: Then And Now

BY LOUIE OVERSTREET

During my early childhood, after a half-decade of sacrifice by America’s Greatest Generation, when “all gave some and some gave all,” America in 1946 transitioned from a wartime economy of rationing goods back to that of a consumer economy. 

For Christmas 1946, Santa (for me) and my parents (for my older brothers, Rudy and Willie) fulfilled our wishes with Western Flyers bikes from the Western Auto store on Euclid behind the Sears and Roebuck department store in Cleveland. Theirs were full-size, mine was a little red one with training wheels. A year later, I wished for my two front teeth. 

As for fulfilling Christmas wishes since 1947, it has been more than a fairly decent run for my family until now. I say this because there is no way my 2025 Christmas wish list can be satisfied. After all, who hasn’t wished for world peace and sensible American gun laws? 

Be that as it may, I am sharing my modest list of six wishes — ones that will be exceedingly difficult for Santa to bring down the chimney to me. 

1. I wish for every childhood to be as healthy and happy as the one I experienced. 

2. I wish for the Golden Rule to be practiced daily by each and every one of us. 

3. I wish for freedoms and personal liberties to never again be abridged by a vile president. 

4. I wish more people and their elected representatives would accept personal responsibility for their behavior. 

5. I wish more people of limited means could understand that voting or not has consequences. 

And for my sixth and final request, I wish everyone blessed with kind hearts a Happy New Year and for the 2026 midterms to be even “mo’ better” than the off-year elections last month.