The Christmas season seems to begin earlier and earlier every year. There's Christmas in July now (for the shopping, not the celebrating). This year, decorations could be seen in stores before the skeletons of Halloween had been shoved back into the closet. I don't know if this happens around the nation or not, but we have a radio station that began playing Christmas music on NOVEMBER FIRST.
?!?!?!
Maybe it's because that happens to be my birthday, but the first six recognizable notes sounded in my head like fingernails on a chalkboard!! Let's just say I've never deleted a radio station from my "favorites" so fast in my life.
The irony in this story came when I shared this experience at work and found that several people there thought I was just a mean old grinch all the way around (they were already harking to the bells, apparently). I guess none of us celebrate the holidays the same way. Our tree never goes up before the 15th of December. We don't do Santa (which makes us "unbelievers" -- weirdness!) We keep every Christmas, Hanukkah, and end-of-the-year card that ever comes to our home for stringing up around the walls and remembering all of our friends. We still go out caroling every year. We don't open presents on Christmas Eve. We collect Nativity scenes (and were despondent over the loss of several last year from moving plastic barrels around.) The lights on our house still remind us of a Charlie Brown sort of Christmas. We have an advent sort of book that we celebrate with every year with a scripture, a song, and a story -- keeping us focused on the Christ part of the mass of things to do (though, we have yet to do this in a quotidian (HA!) manner. And every year, we talk about waiting to give gifts on January 6th, (thinking we'd give better gifts if we hit the after holiday sales), but the we never make it and the little ones are always fine with whatever humble things we were able to offer mixed in with the splendid generosity that seems to sparkle through the cracks this time of year.
So, BAH-HUMBUG on your early Christmas music, your electronic Marquee guilt trip countdowns, your commercials and advertising, and Black Friday chaos! We do Christmas our own way around here. And it never fails to bring a little bit of joy to our world.
?!?!?!
Maybe it's because that happens to be my birthday, but the first six recognizable notes sounded in my head like fingernails on a chalkboard!! Let's just say I've never deleted a radio station from my "favorites" so fast in my life.
The irony in this story came when I shared this experience at work and found that several people there thought I was just a mean old grinch all the way around (they were already harking to the bells, apparently). I guess none of us celebrate the holidays the same way. Our tree never goes up before the 15th of December. We don't do Santa (which makes us "unbelievers" -- weirdness!) We keep every Christmas, Hanukkah, and end-of-the-year card that ever comes to our home for stringing up around the walls and remembering all of our friends. We still go out caroling every year. We don't open presents on Christmas Eve. We collect Nativity scenes (and were despondent over the loss of several last year from moving plastic barrels around.) The lights on our house still remind us of a Charlie Brown sort of Christmas. We have an advent sort of book that we celebrate with every year with a scripture, a song, and a story -- keeping us focused on the Christ part of the mass of things to do (though, we have yet to do this in a quotidian (HA!) manner. And every year, we talk about waiting to give gifts on January 6th, (thinking we'd give better gifts if we hit the after holiday sales), but the we never make it and the little ones are always fine with whatever humble things we were able to offer mixed in with the splendid generosity that seems to sparkle through the cracks this time of year.
So, BAH-HUMBUG on your early Christmas music, your electronic Marquee guilt trip countdowns, your commercials and advertising, and Black Friday chaos! We do Christmas our own way around here. And it never fails to bring a little bit of joy to our world.
No comments:
Post a Comment