Now that Christmas is over I gotta ask, what is it about our society and holidays? My local Hallmark store starts putting out Christmas tree ornaments in July. Yup, July. This year I saw my first Christmas-themed advertisement in September. The commercialization of the holidays starts way before any of us are thinking of candy canes or chestnuts roasting on an open fire.
Advertisers start ramping up the holiday spirit long before the holidays begin. And it seems to get earlier every year. They try harder each year, but the harder they try the more average folk seem to ignore them. Regardless of their efforts, it looks to me like most people don’t start to pay attention to the holidays until around Thanksgiving.
I often think that, for most people, the holidays are like an old wooden roller coaster. “Clack, clack, clack” the coaster starts in mid-November as it goes up the long incline, your anticipation growing by the inch. During December the excitement builds as the coaster ascends. On Christmas Eve the coaster reaches the summit and the rush of adrenaline hits you. Down, down we plunge, wind in our hair as we rush downstairs to meet the excitement of our family the next morning. During the day there are smaller peaks and valleys as visitors arrive and meals are served. And as the day ends the coaster pulls into the station, ending this year’s ride.
All this is some of what we love about Christmas. But what I really don’t like is December 26.
On 12/26 it’s like we’ve gotten amnesia. Christmas? What’s that? No more Christmas songs on the radio. Take that tree down. Decorations disappear from stores. The only Christmas-themed ads on TV are for after-Christmas sales. And, in a few days Hallmark will have Valentine’s Day cards out and the roller coaster will start to make another trip around the track, albeit a much smaller coaster for a lesser (but immensely important!) holiday.
And, we see this with other holidays too but, let’s face it, Christmas is the big megillah! So, the holidays should last a little longer than our society’s collective attention span. In fact, I think that great American philosopher Bob Hope said it best:
"My idea of Christmas, whether old-fashioned or modern, is very simple: loving others. Come to think of it, why do we have to wait for Christmas to do that?"
So maybe we can celebrate the spirit of Christmas for longer than December 26?
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Brand New Hat
This has nothing to do with anything, but I thought it was pretty funny!
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Seen at My Local Wawa
So, what do you think? That great big red thing is so invisible that we need a couple of little orange traffic cones to make sure people can see it?
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