ENOUGH already!

I have a friend whose post on Facebook yesterday involved being tired of Christmas carols already. Yeah. It's not even Thanksgiving.

I remember as a child the magic that happened sometime between doing last-minute Thanksgiving meal grocery shopping on Wednesday night (you know, when the pie didn't turn out right and you had to run to the store and hope they had some kind of pie, somewhere) and "Black Friday" shopping (which, many, many years ago, started at a reasonable hour like 9 am). The stores (Britts in Freehold, in particular) turned into a Christmas wonderland, the shelves were full of toys (looking back, those shelves were probably set up in advance, because they were in a section of the store that could be closed off to customers in the days or weeks leading up), Santa's throne and SANTA were there...the day after Thanksgiving.

No Christmas carols were playing, no artificial trees (silver aluminum, anyone?!), no decorations - not even any Salvation Army bell-ringers, until then. No toy ads on tv, no Christmas movies on the Hallmark Channel (ok, there WAS no Hallmark Channel)...

There were no stores open on Thankgiving Day. It was *gasp* a day of giving thanks to God, of food, of family, of food, of football, of food (do you see a pattern???), of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade (on TV of course) followed by Laurel & Hardy's March of the Wooden Soldiers on Channel 11 out of New York, followed by King Kong, Son of Kong, and Mighty Joe Young, in succession, on Channel 9. And more food.

The big meal was at noon (or very shortly thereafter); then naps (between/during movies, of course), card games, board games, jigsaw puzzle on the card table, cutting the leftover potatoes (which there were always plenty of) to make potato salad to go with the cold turkey and ham sandwiches we'd have for supper. And the washing of the dishes (one of the few times the "good" china and the "real" silverware came out of the cupboards). And the cooking of macaroni to make macaroni salad (not pasta salad. macaroni salad. elbow macaroni.). And we'd nibble all day.

Don't get me wrong. I love Christmas carols (Destiny's Child's "I Got Your Back This Christmas" is a particular favorite...) and Christmas movies. I love buying gifts for those I love, as well as buying gifts for some that I will never meet. I love the Salvation Army, and what it does for those who are members and those that they serve. I love Santa. I love the street in Hal's hometown of South Connellsville, where like 6 or 8 of the neighbors put on a big display of EVERY CHRISTMAS LAWN ORNAMENT EVER MADE of plastic, wood, inflatable, you-name-it, and string lights across the street. I do.

But I have to agree with Lucy Van Pelt. I think Christmas is now "...run by a big eastern syndicate, you know." We go from decorating like mad for Halloween, to forgetting Thanksgiving (or making it just another day to shop), to getting so bought in (pun intended) to the commercialism that we forget what the season is about. We are so caught up with what we HAVE to buy for our kids, or the holiday (we forget HOLYday) will be RUINED for them. Peace on earth? Forget it, punk, I saw that (insert hot toy of the year here) first, and I'm going to knock you out of the way to get it for my kid!

As we near the season of Advent: breathe. slow down. learn to say no. And yeah, if you're tired of the Christmas carols and movies already - turn them off til after Thanksgiving.