On Holidays

What with finals and plane trips happening, coming up with an original post for this week has proved to be somewhat of a challenge. Then I went to a Christmas party in the middle of November and it all clicked.

Christmas celebrations start way too early these days.



I get why. People love Christmas and talking about it earlier allows them to be happier longer. Retailers love the Christmas spirit because it encourages more shopping. There was a time, at least in my mind, when the 25 days of Christmas was literally the first 25 days of December. Then it crept up to Black Friday to get rid of that pesky lull between Christmas and the closest holiday before it, Thanksgiving. This year though I swear I saw Christmas stuff at the CVS as soon as Halloween was over.

What bothers me about this isn’t the blatant consumerism because whatever shopping can be cool. No, what I don’t like is the marginalization of Thanksgiving since it’s not really a shopping-based holiday. To be fair though, my affinity for Thanksgiving is a very personal one. My birthday is always on or around Thanksgiving so that means it’s a day where I see my family and get presents, the two things people usually associate with Thanksgiving. Therefore, for me Christmas has also been a tad redundant, certainly cool, but not quite as exciting. I’m also not a very religious person so really the best thing Christmas has going for it is a longer break from school and an exponential increase in people playing Charlie Brown music.

So yeah that’s just me. But what’s the point of this blog anyway?

Now Kwanzaa on the other hand…

And how about those people that just have decorations on their houses all year long. There was this one family in my neighborhood that would do it and my mom loved it but I just couldn't stand it. Then one day they moved and the new family took down the decorations. Of course it made my mom really sad. So one day I'm driving through town in December, during actual Christmas season, and see the undecorated house. I decided to do something. I stop, get out of my car and knock on the door. No one answers. I wait a few minutes and finally open the door, get on the floor, everybody walk the dinosaur.