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Just a reminder to send thank-you notes to those who gave you presents for Christmas! Also, please consider this a thank-you note to anyone who gave me Christmas presents. They were very appreciated.

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The fact is, no matter how bad they are, most every kid is going to end up on Santa's "Good" list and get at least one present from him on Christmas. I'm sure many a parent has wanted to give their child a lump of coal, but thought better of it because they want them to have a good Christmas. Perhaps that means that Christmas should not only be a time of giving, but also forgiving.

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This has always been my favorite Calvin and Hobbes Christmas strip. It evokes all the feelings of Christmas and Christmas Eve, as well as the feeling of friendship, the central element of Calvin and Hobbes. It's also interesting because it's quite different from any other Calvin and Hobbes strip. Instead of a rowdy six-year-old getting into trouble or philosophizing, it's simply a calm scene described in a poem.

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When I was a kid, my love of comic strips and desire to be a cartoonist came from reading Calvin and Hobbes. The older I got, the more I appreciated it, and the more ways I was able to appreciate it. The writing and artwork were of a quality that had not been seen in newspapers for many years, and after it ended, it would still be a few years before any comic strip would compare to it, at least in my mind.

One thing that Bill Watterson always did at Christmas season was show the difficulties Calvin always had with Santa Claus. As a six-year-old kid, he obviously believes in Santa, and often writes letters to him, as we see here. He is often troubled by the need to be on Santa's "Good" list, though his only motivation for doing this is to receive more presents. This should give us pause to consider our own actions. Are we being good because we want to be good, or to receive some kind of reward for doing so?

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The holidays are supposed to be a time of joy, but often they are a time of disappointment. Sometimes, like in this strip, it's not about the gifts but about the friends and connections that we have, or don't have. Thankfully, Charlie Brown shows us that, despite his disappointments, he can move on and make something good out of his holiday season. I wish I was as resilient as he is.