I am still full. It happens when I eat a Thanksgiving meal prepared by my wife. Her turkey is the single greatest culinary thrill of the holiday season.
And seeing that we have now made it past Thanksgiving, we can now talk about Christmas. Talking about Christmas before Thanksgiving is premature. Talking about Christmas before my beloved Halloween is simply offensive.
So, all of you Christmas lovers, rejoice. This is your time of the year. The time of year that you can drink eggnog and not feel strange about drinking something call “eggnog.” You can decorate your house with the flair of Liberace and not feel guilty about it. You can sing those songs that all of us know, but most of us really don’t like, when you get right down to it.
You can wear truly ugly sweaters with reindeer and Santa on them and as much red and green as you would like.
Please, feel free to shout “ho, ho, ho!” at everyone you see, like a deranged elf.
Smile, make merry, talk about the “true meaning of Christmas.” You can even talk about the made up “war on Christmas” if you want to.
Knock yourself out. Have fun. Enjoy it.
I am all for this country taking the Christmas season back to being just Christmas. And by that, I mean that period of time that starts the day after Thanksgiving – our now sadly important Black Friday – and ends at midnight on Dec. 25.
That is really the Christmas season. That should be the focus of you Christmas-loving hordes, and not a moment earlier than that. Let’s face it, if you start much earlier than that, you burn out. Your family burns out. The country burns out.
Christmas being extended past that time frame has really just been done for commercial purposes. Yes, Christmas (for most) is just about presents and family and traditions. We are a market driven society here, people. The longer the season, the more time for us to be battered about the head and neck about stuff we should be buying. Sale here, deal there – buy, buy, buy!
Is it crass consumerism, or is it just America? Frankly, in 2017 it is just America. We want to go big or not at all.
Have you ever watched the show “House Hunters?” Americans want everything big.
“This house is kind of small,” the woman says as her husband nods.
“It’s 6,340 square feet,” the real estate agent answers. “And you just have one child.”
“But how can we all cram into that space with only five bathrooms!”
Then watch “House Hunters International,” where people in other parts of the world don’t focus on size as much as function, location and comfort.
Christmas in Denmark would last about a week, I would guess.
We like big because we are a big country. And big includes Christmas. If we can afford it, we buy enough stuff for a brigade of people. We shower family with gifts, much of it junk, but hey, it makes us feel better about ourselves, right?
Yes, Christmas has become a plastic holiday, but it has become that because that is kind of who we are as a society. We fake smile. We are friends with people on social media that we have never met in the real world. We make most purchases with plastic cards.
So, go out and buy some stuff, sing some songs, drink some eggnog and celebrate Christmas. But remember, your cutoff is Dec. 25. After that, it’s back to the real world.
