6 ~ Friday, December 25, 1987 - North Shore News Publisher Managing Editor Associate Editor THE VOOCE OF NORTH AND WEST VANCOUVER: Display Advertising 980-0511 Classified Advertising 986-6222 Newsroom 985-2131 Distribution 986-1337 Subscriptions 986-1337 Peter Speck Barrett Fisher ang Sunday dy North Shore § ree Press, 6 Mal Regetraton Mumiet 4865 Subecophons, aivet SOS fae E On reguest Submissions ate welcome but ae fallty fOr Uno CEd Maternal inclizdng Toanuscopls and caclures vette Shivuld f4: accompanied cd envetcrm: rere * WEDNESDAY + FRIDAY 4139 Lonsdale Ave. North Vancouver, B.C. V7M 2H4 CANNOT aGCEpS Fresno by a stamped address as spirits HE BRIGHT light at the heart of Christmas refuses to be dimmed by the Scrooges and the cynics that abound at this time of year. Beneath its bright wrapping and fancy bows, Christmas retains a core of genuine magic that eludes all other human celebrations. It is.a magic grounded in the value and power of families, the warmth of human love and a grudging faith in a basic good in the world. Perhaps the most beneficial by-product of Christmas is its ability to force people to look beyoad the limited horizons of their own problems and concerns, to take stock of whai they have in comparison to those who have far less, to consider a power greater than their own. It is a time of year in which appeals for help get response from even the most austere sectors of the population. It is a time of year in which giving means more than taking. But to appreciate the real magic of Christmas re- quires observing the season through the eyes of a child whe regards the visitation of Santa Claus with the unspoiled relish of one who still believes unswervingly in magic and a distant good. For all those of lesser imaginations and more tempered attitudes who have dispatched Santa Claus to the scrap heap of frustrated expectations, belief in what he and the Christmas season represent will help Entire contents © 1987 North Shore Free Press Lid. All rights reserved. 58,804 (average, Wednesday Friday & Sunday) Sor eenrrey rekindle that lost faith. ittie NEWS photo Mike Wakeflatd SERENADING THE SENIORS...members of the 38th Brownie Pack spread the festive spirit by entertaining residents of Lynn Valley Lodge with Christmas carols. risti mate for a chi FOR SEVEN WEEKS and four days we've been bombarded every waking hour with a mounting tor- rent of messages telling us cr all the things we!’ love about Christmas, After all, it’s the season of love — right? But how do you square this with balanced journalism which always requires BOTH sides of a story to be told? Isn’t that what you de- mand, dear reader, of any depen- dable newspaper? So this Christmas morn Mr. Nice Guy is quitting for just a few minutes to be true to his profes- sion. In the interests of objective reporting here comes Uncle Noel’s personal 32-item Christmas hate list. 1 HATE: ©The speed with which Christmas arrives. How come the seven weeks between Nov.! and Dec.25 get reduced to four shopp- te GETTING IN SHAPE ‘for the turkey...a West Van YMCA aerobics Christmas music. ing days? ; ¢ People who’ve completed all their Christmas. preparations by Nov. 30. * Snow on one or more of the four shopping days. ¢ No snow on Christmas Day. ¢ Daily visits to the bank money machine. e Arriving at the shopping cen- ‘tre five minutes before opening time to find 500 people got there 10 minutes before. Heading hopefully for the stores during the 6-7 p.m. dinner hour — to discover nobody else is eating either. © Post office line-ups, especially the one with the woman in front of me whose problem they’ve never encountered before. e Stamps that lick doesn’t stick. © Neighbors’ outdoor lights with more strings than mine. «Radio announcers who keep cheerfully reminding me it’s the last Monday before Christmas. * Christmas trees that are never the right shape when you get them home. © Christmas trees that are always the right shape when you get them home — because they’re grown in Thailand plastics factories. © Multicultural greeting cards that carefully avoid mentioning “Christmas’’, like it was a dirty word. © Computers that send you three identical business Christmas cards by the same mail. © Receiving cards from people I'd dropped from my list this year. © Trying to decide whether their affection is wortit all the trouble of buying more cards and stamps. © Early greetings from people leaving to spend Christmas in Palm Springs, Hawaii and Puerto Vallarta. e Ditto from people departing on a Christmas cruise. * Taxi companies with a perma- nent busy signal. NEWS photo Cindy Bellamy class tries out the ‘‘Reindecr Romp”’. to Noel Wright ® friday focus ® j * Clothing departments with the tight color in the wrong size. ; © Ditto with the right size in the wrong color. © Toy departments that have never heard of what my grandyon asked for. ® Toy departments that had iti in earlier but are sold out until January. © Small children on the loose i in toy departments. ® Large women on the foose in clothing departments. : ® The 12 people who are ahead of me in every cashier’s line-up. ° Cars parked in stalls reserved for the handicapped by occupants who aren’t. ° Trying to cut the - right - size sheet from a curling roll of gift- wrap. ° Watching 10 minutes of gift- wrapping labor destroyed in two seconds before the card is read. ¢ Eating warm turkey that isn’t. - And 11 p.m. on Christmas Night — when one suddenly wonders what all the fuss was about. et OTHERWISE, | love every minute of Christmas. No humbug. It was * I, after all, who finally persuaded cousin Ebenezer to join the human race. I plan to go on loving every minute of Christmas until 11: p.m: tonight. - May you and yours share this day’s happiness with me! ae WRIGHT OR WRONG — As Voltaire might have said: If Santa didn’t exist it would have been necessary to invent him. NEWS photo fom Burley GOING OUT IN STYLE...West Van wraps up its 75th Anniversary year at Ambleside park on Carol Ships night.