OK. I admit it. For me, getting into the “Holiday spirit” this year has been more difficult than shoving a camel into a needle’s eye. Even though both my wife and I were raised in the Christian tradition, we do have Christmas lights, we do have an (artificial) tree, and we do have a bevy of berry-covered decorations, nothing is up yet. More, every trip to the grocery store and its continuous Holiday music gives me shivers. I’m actually tired of Bing Crosby and have begun, secretly, to hope for anything other than snow this season. So, go ahead if you want, call me “Scrooge.” I’ll just offer up another litany of humbugs.

But can you really blame me?

You see, this week, I packed up a box of personal belongings from my cell-like cubicle and made that confused walk to my car for the last drive home from work. I suspect, unless you’re really lucky, you’ve seen people clutching those small boxes packed with family photos and random mementos, and maybe you’ve even noticed that dazed look in their eyes. You know, the one that says, um, well, what now?

And if you haven’t noticed that look yet, judging from an article by Dana Mattoli in the Wall Street Journal, you will. Three or four years ago, wasn’t it much, much easier to don your rose-colored glasses, look on the bright side, turn over a new leaf, or make lemonade out of lemons? And now?

Now, such cliches offer as much solace as swimming lessons for a drowning man. Now, it’s finally clear that the United States of America is a socialist country — but it’s not the sort of socialism that would delight Charles Dickens. Nope. We have a unique, oligarchic socialism. Of course, unless you live under a rose-colored rock, you know all about the $350 billion the U.S. government gave to the banking industry, and the additional $350 billion that will keep a few mismanaged banks afloat. Although the bailout (as I understand it) was intended to stabilize markets and make both interbank and consumer lending more feasible, a few banks have taken measures that seem (at least to me) likely to extend the credit crisis and deepen it. Never fear though, the government is planning to step in — by 2010. Still, maybe it means fewer layoffs — for the banks.

Alas, the economy is sinking even faster than James Frey’s reputation once did. Yet Frey, who is (seriously) planning to pen the next book of the Bible, might make some sort of recovery, which is more than I’ll say for the economy. Sometimes, like when you think about the value of your home or imagine the usury-like interest rates someone with a couple of late payments might get hoodwinked into soon, it’s easy to imagine that stimulus might never happen.

But don’t worry! Not yet! According to Jeanne Cummings at Politico, the government is spending $8 trillion with the hope that, well, something happens. $8,000,000,000,000. That’s enough money to make 8 million small business loans of $1 million each. I’m just sayin’….

Of course, I’d be a fool not to recognize that — as of yet — my family’s economic situation is not anywhere near as dire as so many thousands out there. In fact, it’s not difficult to imagine that our economy might take a Dickensian turn or two. After all, with this economy, who wouldn’t work 60 hours (or more) to keep their job? Who wouldn’t agree to cuts in benefits, if it meant you could keep your job? Who wouldn’t take a risk or two at work so that maybe that mortgage wouldn’t tumble into foreclosure?

And that, I suppose, is precisely why Dickens’ A Christmas Carol has particular resonance for us today. All of us, everyone, is starting to feel a bit like Cratchit, just thankful for what we get. Still, I’d like to point out that the story of Ebeneezer Scrooge is not — as our cliches seem to suggest — a story of avarice, miserliness, or anti-Christmas sentiments. Scrooge, remember, makes sure Tiny Tim (and the rest of the Cratchits) has a “real” Christmas dinner. And to me, it’s the dinner, the sustenance that matters, so this Christmas, I’m asking Santa for ghosts. Lots of them.

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