There’s such a big lead-up to Christmas. Retailers begin decorating for the holidays the day after Halloween, but once consumer dollars have been spent on gifts, there’s no reason for the Christmas season to continue beyond December 25th. In the old days, the 12 Days of Christmas was the holiday season. Commencing on Christmas and culminating on Epiphany, the day commemorating the visit of the Three Magi to the infant Jesus.
After New Year’s Day, folks begin taking decorations down. Before stripping the lights off our Christmas Truck, we took one more drive through illuminated neighborhoods like Kringlewood with its giant 40′ tall Santas.
Returning home late in the evening, we noticed a UPS envelope sticking out of our mailbox. A closer look showed it travelled all the way from Arizona, where Reach Out World Wide (www.ROWW.org) is located.
Inside was a lovely thank you letter from the charity organization founded by Paul Walker, star of the Fast & Furious movies. Demaras Racing has hosted four Fast Film Fest movie nights at the Film.ca Cinemas since October, and proceeds from the events have been donated to ROWW and their Jamaican hurricane recovery efforts.
Included in the envelope was a hand-painted enamel Christmas ornament. To the un-trained eye it’s a modern interpretation of the Christmas Truck; a red Ford pickup truck, its bed overflowing with gift boxes.
But gearheads and cinephiles easily identify this as officer Brian O’Conner’s 1999 Ford F-150 Lightning from the 2001 film “The Fast and The Furious“. In the movie, Paul Walker is an undercover cop, trying to infiltrate a street-racing ring. His cover story is that he’s actually an employee of The Racer’s Edge speed shop, and this step-side is his delivery vehicle.
The ornament replaces the shop name on the door with the ROWW logo, and driver Santa is wearing a black ‘4PAUL‘ t-shirt while hauling a load of gifts, instead of go-fast goodies like in the movie.
We placed the ornament on our Christmas tree, even if only for one night. But next year, this little memento will have a special place on our tree.
Love those ornaments!
I was so pleased to get that as a ‘thank you’ from the charity we donated to. Really appreciated it. And as a gearhead loved it.
The only other ‘special’ ornament I have is a miniature acrylic coffee pot, plus dozens of little school-project ornaments from the kids. I like this one a lot.
Me too!
🙂
I especially like that picture of passed out drunk 40′ Santa.
The ornament is a nice touch.
I know, eh? Those tall Santa Claus really hit the bottle after the 25th. Shameful to be passed out on the lawn.
You’d think, given how big they are, they could handle their liquor.