Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Thanksgiving has passed, which means Christmas season is officially here.
Read that first sentence again, and hinge on the importance of the initial phrase. “Thanksgiving has passed” is what truly signifies that the Christmas season has arrived. Now, officially, is when it becomes appropriate to begin preparing for December 25.
We’re getting a little too out of hand with all the Christmas themed items hitting the aisles, soundwaves and minds the minute children come home with their trick-or-treating hauls Oct. 31.
Now, before you start lobbing Scrooge and Grinch accusations my way, be rest assured that Christmas is probably my favorite holiday.
I love the cheerful attitudes non-consumer-obsessed folks bring to the season. I love decorating cookies. The smell of a real Christmas tree and its pine needles wafting through a warm home is, to use a sports metaphor, undefeated. Giving (and yes, receiving) gifts to loved family and friends is a nearly unmatched feeling.
But the saying “too much of a good thing” holds some weight as it pertains to Christmas.
Let’s start with trees. (As a side note, isn’t it kind of funny that we all just accept and love the fact that we chop down a tree and stick it in our houses once a year?)
The average life expectancy of a Christmas tree is four to five weeks. If we’re cutting down our tree in the first week of November, that tragic timber will be a brown pile of sticks and dried up pine needles by the middle of December. But if we wait to get our tree until the weekend after Thanksgiving, we can be rest assured we’ll have a healthy shrub Christmas morning.
We’ll next move on to consumer culture. I could argue that American consumer culture puts far too much stock into materialism and desire for things, but that’s a column for another day. I can say with certainty, however, that all that commercialism and advertising for two months beginning Nov. 1 is a bit too much.
We can include Christmas music here. I adore Christmas music. From Michael Buble to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra to old-school Burl Ives, my Spotify playlist oozes holiday spirit…but not until Black Friday.
If we’re listening to Christmas music by the time November hits, aren’t we a little tired of it by Dec. 25?
When I was a teenager, I worked at The UPS Store in Camas, Washington. We began playing Christmas music in early November. After hours and hours of Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” I was noticeably vexed. And after similar hours of Wham!’s “Last Christmas,” I wanted to “wham” my head into a wall.
That wouldn’t be the case with a joyful, concise month of holiday tunes before we turn our attention to the New Year.
Let’s also look at the health benefits. As the sun goes down earlier and the Christmas merriment increases, we’re all far more likely to skip the vegetables and protein and opt for another one of those incredible peppermint Oreo cookies at Trader Joes. If those options are reduced to being available one month of the year instead of two, our bodies will certainly thank us.
Starting the Christmas celebration also takes away from another fantastic holiday, Thanksgiving. Here we have another time to gather with family, eat delicious food and recognize the blessings we’ve been bestowed. Why trample Santa’s sleigh over this opportunity to do this while entering a food coma, playing in a Turkey Bowl and watching the Detroit Lions lose year after year?
Christmas season is a wonderful time to enjoy…after Thanksgiving. Let’s not let “too much of a good thing” become a reality. Won’t we look forward to the holiday season more if it comes around for just one month a year, anyway?
Drew Lawson is the editor of the Davenport Times. He is a graduate of Eastern Washington University.
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