AP photo A 27-meter fir tree from the Ultimo valley in South Tyrol, Italy, is lit up as Christmas tree together with a crib in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican.

When I was a kid, I couldn’t wait until Thanksgiving was over. That’s when I was given the green light to make my Christmas wish list.

I recall that the year I was 8 or 9 it was a page long. I knew that I wouldn’t get everything. Santa only had one sleigh. But I figured what the hey. Had nothing to lose. I also recall sharing my want list with the Furnace Street gang (gang in the good sense). Combined, our lists would have gone from the park to St. J’ville. Sleds. Skates. BB Guns. Trains. Games. Ball Gloves.

You name it, we wanted it. One year a silver-plated, ivory handled Lone Ranger cap gun topped my list. Never got it. Mom didn’t want to be driven crazy by the noise. I didn’t speak to her for months! She later said that she enjoyed the peace and quiet. Got it next year. My father was sick and tired of my whining.

That trip down memory lane got me thinking: what would my wish list be for this year? Twenty golf lessons from the “king of swing” Mark Lane might enable me to outdrive Kay this year. A $200 gift certificate for Ed’s Pizza or the Cakery or the Ann Street Deli? After a little more thought, I decided to eschew my selfish desires for three or four others. Despite what you may think, each is attainable.

— Christmas cards from two of my Vietnam combat buddies inspired my first wish. Today, there’s a 30,000 plus rag-tag army of homeless veterans pushing shopping carts filled with their life’s possessions along that road less traveled to nowhere. Many suffer from wounds unseen that manifest in the form of smothering dreams, failed marriages, and alcohol-drug fueled violent rages. They live each day saddled with guilt and shame. For too many, the only escape from their hell on earth is suicide. I wish that they can be identified, sheltered and counseled so that Christmas 2026 finds them surrounded by friends and family, healed, hale, hearty and happy. (note: this wish can come true if funds cut from the budgets of HUD and the VA are not only restored, but increased.) And for that matter, I wish away homelessness.

— One of the highlights each Christmas for Kay and me is knowing that several hundred area children in need will awaken Christmas morning to find new coats, boots, duds and their special wish under a tree thanks to hundreds of sponsors who are part of The Gram Lorraine (Kay’s late mother) Children’s Christmas Program. At least for one day, the pain of poverty is assuaged.

Then, on Dec. 26, they awaken and the anguish returns-substandard housing, two meals a day, poor self-images made poorer by being reminded in so many different ways that they are inferior, not as good. I wish that I could end their misery and guarantee them improved health care and educational opportunities, three square, nutritious meals, better housing and good paying jobs for their parents (or in too many cases, parent). No child should have to live in poverty in the world’s richest nation where tens of millions worship a man who would never have allowed the least among us to live the way they do. Poverty can be likened to a double-edged sword. On the one side, abhorrent environs-on the other, hopelessness. If other countries have dealt successfully with the problem (e.g. Denmark; Finland), what’s our excuse?

— I wish an end to pediatric cancer. In my long life I’ve had way too many experiences with victims of that horrific illness. Among the worst involved a Vietnam veteran’s beautiful 6-year-old daughter who never saw 7 because of a rare cancer attributed to her daddy’s exposure to Agent Orange. My godson, whose dad was a ‘Nam combat medic, suffered from Histiocytosis X. Google it up. Those St. Jude commercials always bring tears to my eyes. Want a definition of courage? Forget Webster’s. Take a good look at the faces of those little angels — smiling through the pain, the treatments, the worrisome diagnoses. Hell, I wish for the end of all cancers. Like the one that killed my father. Like the one that resulted in the removal of a chunk of my youngest daughter’s brain. Like the one that probably took the life of someone in your family. (note: the government recently ended funding for pediatric cancer research-probably in an effort to generate some of the moolah necessary to pay for cuts for the country’s 900 billionaires. Wonder how much they’ve given to charitable causes?)

–Luke 2:14 “…peace on earth, good will toward men.” I wish peace on earth for the children of the world; for all mankind. The thoughts of Palestinian mothers in Gaza holding babies killed by Israeli 2000 pound bombs supplied by the U.S.of A., of Sudanese mothers holding babies starving because of a senseless civil war and the cutting off of U.S. Aid, of Russian peasant mothers mourning the deaths of teenaged sons turned into cannon fodder by a contemporary Ivan the Terrible, are especially bothersome given the fact that our government has the power to prevent each tragedy from occurring. Man’s inhumanity to man, caused by avarice and an unquenchable thirst for power, almost always victimizes the most vulnerable among us, especially children. The man from Galilee’s admonition to “love thine enemy” has fallen on deaf ears far more often than not.

As for good will to men, it’s about time that we put the Christ back into Christmas. I’ve always believed that His Ten Commandments provided mankind with the path to happy, righteous lives. They’re so easy, yet, for so many who should know better, so hard to follow. If we treated everyone with respect, avoided name calling and the mocking of the disabled and weak, spoke only the truth, agreed to disagree with civility, loved our neighbors regardless of race, color or religion and worked to make our tomorrows better than our yesterdays, imagine what a wonderful world this would be..

Finally, take time to enjoy the season’s music (Der Bingle’s White Christmas; An Alan Jackson Christmas); the tree all dressed up in colored lights, adorned with ornaments and, if you’re an old geezer like me, tinsel; the specially decorated sugar cookies smothered with frosting; and the love and convivial feelings (the spirit of Christmas), abounding everywhere. By doing so, my wish of peace and good will toward all of you will come true. Happy Holidays.

Ray Lenarcic is a 1965 State University of New York at Fredonia graduate and is a resident of Herkimer.