As my wife shifts the Christmas decoration of our home into high gear, and as we both continue to sneeze and sniffle occasionally with a bug that's been hanging around the house for more than a month now, I'm reminded of a key holiday decoration out of my past. My father's mother, a saint of a New York City Irish gal named Alice, had in her box of decorations a box of Kleenex tissues. Not just good old regular Kleenex, mind you, but a special box that had red and green tissues in it and a Christmas motif on the sides.

The tissues were packed so that they alternated as you drew them out -- first a green one, then a red one. Naturally little hands like ours wanted to effect this fascinating transformation over and over, but that wasn't allowed. In fact, one wasn't allowed to use the special Kleenex for any purpose other than as a decoration. This rule explained the longevity of that single box, which got dusted off and strategically placed on the same end table year after year.

As Granny would remind us, "Honey, these are for show, not for blow."