Remember the holidays when you were a child? Whether it was a quiet dinner with close family or a more raucous celebration with extended family and friends, it was nothing like today’s celebrations. The high tech world has thoroughly infiltrated the holidays.

In days past, family celebrations were only rarely interrupted by the ring of a telephone. Today we have family members answering their cell phone almost constantly and teen-agers texting under the table cloth edge during the holiday dinner.

Years ago, everyone smiled when the camera came out and even though some of us had Polaroid cameras, most of us didn’t even think of viewing the photos or movies until weeks later. Now we can hook the movie camera up to the television and watch the movies right after they are taken. We can place the photo memory card in a digital picture frame and show off the pictures immediately. We can even pop the card into a printer and print copies for everyone. That is except for the photo of Ted, the teenager with the pimply face. His photo will undergo some Photoshopping before it is printed for posterity.

In the Christmas’ of my youth, the presents under the tree were mostly sweaters, jewelry, ties and socks. Although there was an occasional kitchen appliance for mom or a power tool for dad, you didn’t need an outlet to plug in most of the presents back then. We received toys like board games and erector sets.

Today, electronics have taken the center stage with digital cameras, cell phones, GPS devices, electronic books, electronic gaming devices, digital music players, and digital picture frames. After the presents are opened, the room will be more aglow from the LCD screens of digital devices than from the lights on the Christmas tree. Most of the today’s toys need batteries. Yes, there are still board games, but now you can play Scrabble on the computer and the new version of the Clue board game relies on cell phone texting for clues.

Santa Claus may still be making a visit, but his new Santa suit will probably come from Amazon.com rather than from a department store. And the cookies we leave him will most likely be slice-and-bake rather than home made from scratch. And if you don’t have a fireplace for Santa, you can turn your computer screen into a virtual one with websites like FauxFilre.com (www.fauxfire.com).
Instead of music from the radio, vinyl records, or cassettes, many families will be listening to digital music from their iPods or computers. Some will listen to Christmas music from around the world through the Internet. They will be listening to this either on their computers or on an Internet radio.

In fact, some of the younger crowd will have wires handing from their ears as they will forgo the Christmas music and instead listen to their own choice of music. Some families will still sing carols. Instead of using mimeographed sheet music, however, they will, no doubt, have the words printed out from the Internet.
If the kid’s want to watch TV when the party starts to wind down, there will be no turning the dial to find a television show. We can go right to Frosty the Snowman that we recorded on the DVR, or the copy of The Christmas Story that we rented from Netflix.

The holidays of yesterday were great, but the holidays of today are not all bad. They are just different. As we miss some of the traditions and the way things were in the good old days, but we can embrace some of the new technologies that make today’s holidays a little better a little brighter.

Merry Christmas to all.