Christmas push...

[walyfd]

Ok, I know it's coming fast but, today I did my weekly Salvation Army trip. They always have a local pop station on the store muzak. When I heard Andy Williams, I almost walked out

Now I'm coccooned in the car with cds or PBS jazz. Home is lps, r2r and PBS jazz. But, seriously... wasn't Halloween 2 weeks ago? DID I MISS THANKSGIVING BECAUSE I HAVE A RAW TURKEY IN MY REFRIGERATOR!!!

Today is Santa parade in scranton. Sorry. But I remember a gap between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Sure, black Friday was always there but stores weren't really decorated.

Our tree didn't go up until 2 weeks before Christmas and came down the first weekend after Russian Christmas in January in homage to my ancestors... today, it's PRE VALENTINES DAY a week after New Years.

Is it my age that triggers this funk?

[Hi-Fi-Mogul]

Most of us grew up in a somewhat less money-grubbing culture,
and without the aggrandized ego of immediate gratification.

Last week, some of the rich parts of town had Christmas decorations
going up.

Slower anticipation of holidays was part of the fun in previous years;
not having everything happening at once to build up a frenzy of
buying things you "just have to have".

This "culture" has taken "keeping up with the Jones" into orbit, ha ha !!!

[electra225]

We got fake Christmas trees in at the store the second week of July. They started playing Christmas music before Halloween.

[TC Chris]

Two weeks back I tried to buy some fall bulbs--tulip, daffodil--at Ace Hardware. The shelves were covered with Xmas stuff. No flower bulbs. On my daily after-work hike or the bike ride home, I see Xmas lights out.

Yes, it makes me crazy too. Way too early, and part of a carefully orchestrated plan to turn holidays into commercial profit opportunities. Has anybody noticed how Halloween has been transformed from a kids' event into an adult expenditure opportunity? There are extravagant decorations ($$$) everywhere. One time carving up a pumpkin was about it, plus some costumes for the kids.

Me, what I enjoy about the holiday season is the music (traditional Christmas carols) and the lights. Yes, I'll make an exception to my exasperation for Xmas lights. Here on the 45th parallel, it gets dark early. It's dark, it's cold, it's nasty, and bright colored lights add some genuine cheer. I leave mine up until Feb., when we can sense that the days are getting longer. Getting them out early does help with weather issues. I had sorta intended to get mine out this weekend, but we've been hit with major snow so the chore will be deferred. Oops.

A new tradition for me is the annual nighttime bike tour through the city. A youth-biking organization conducts it each year. We gather at a downtown point and then travel through neighborhoods with lots of lights, in the dark. It's a big cloud of bikes with out bike lights going, moving through the city and taking the right of way by sheer numbers. You have to be into winter bicycling! It was going to be tonight, this year part of a larger parade for the annual municipal tree lighting, but it was deferred a few days because there's just too much snow right now.

There's a chirpy musical annoyance that has the lyric, "It's the most wonderful time of the year." My response, translated into polite language, is "balderdash." That's spelled with a B and an S. It's a horrible time. Dark, cold, wet, and we are assaulted by a sequence of commercial holidays, the last of which demands exchanges of presents. Presents? Great for kids, but for adults, we can buy our own stuff, and probably better and more wisely than others can buy for us. Luckily one of my siblings said "let's stop this" a number of years ago, ending the pressure to find, wrap, and then ship appropriate presents.

Chris Campbell, Scrooge

[walyfd]

I apologize for also posting a similar rant in Music, however, my connection dropped as I was posting so a reboot was called for...

I think it'd be nicer to slowly go into Christmas and let it go into mid-january when it's so dismal. Yeah, I'm ready for the tree to come down by the 10th or so but cramming parties, dinner, visits into this literal month between Thanksgiving and Christmas is nuts. It didn't used to be like this. 12/26 is like the day after election day anymore. Trees are on the curb like political signs. Another disposable holiday, not a season.

[William]

In my sleepy little town people really do not start Christmas decorating until after Thanksgiving. For years and years Christmas starts the Saturday after Thanksgiving with a parade thru town with Santa Clause being the last thing in the parade and he is riding in a Fire Truck. He ends up at the park right downtown where a Christmas tree is waiting for the countdown to "light it up". After that all the kids wait in line to sit on Santa's lap tell him everything they want for Christmas. There is Christmas music playing in the background and hot chocolate and cooks too. It's kind of like a Hallmark Christmas movie but we have been doing this for as far back as I can remember way before Hallmark made it mark in TV.

Bill

[Firedome]

5 years ago we and our children (36, 41, and 46) decided to take different approach to Christmas. Tired of the commercialism we decided that more stuff was something we certainly didn't need, and that the true spirit of Christmas was something else entirely. So now we each pick a charity: cat rescue, food shelf, environmental groups, and for the young grandkids a contribution to their college funds and a book or small toy maybe. We each contribute to the charity chosen by that family member, and we don't miss the glut of unnecessary stuff, needless debt, or the frenzied shopping pandemonium one bit.

[William]

I wish I could convince my family to follow your Christmas plan, Roger. They are stuck in the let's drive ourselves crazy during the Holidays.

Bill