The Horror Of Christmas

It's the beginning of October, which means it's that time of year where people complain to no end about stores preparing for Christmas. I think it's weird, in a way, how people make their lives so strictly compartmentalized. This day is for this; this month is for that; we don't talk about this until this date. Nothing follows a more universal ruleset than Christmas.

Now, for me, I don't really care. I play an iPod with 12,000 songs on shuffle every day, and in there are a couple hundred Christmas tunes. They pop up year round. There are other people who also don't mind a year round Christmas. One of the Queen's grandmothers, for instance, kept a Christmas tree setup all year, though I suspect it was primarily because she didn't want to deal with the setup and takedown herself since she lived alone.

For others, it's a major huge deal though. Christmas is not discussed, referenced, or acknowledged until the day after Thanksgiving. No exceptions. They completely avoid Hobby Lobby from July through November. I overheard a conversation today where someone heard the song "Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree" on the radio, and actually said it made them sick and demanded the station be changed. The nature of the ensuing conversation usually revolves around "let's get through first" before ending that statement series with Thanksgiving, of course.

Of course, listening to these conversations also reminds me of how much people like to fit in with each other, since the strongest of personalities is always the one to start this sort of discussion. They always want validation when they speak, so naturally, the other people who chime in agree and offer their own "horror stories" of early Christmas observations. And someone always mentions Hobby Lobby's tendency to start bringing the decorations out in July (though someone defended this recently by noting that any Christmas-related crafts would need to be started early, which justifies their bringing these things out when they do).

For the most part, everyone agrees that certain holidays should be relegated to certain times of the year only, and thinks it's all a marketing deal, and while that may be true, there is also nothing wrong with discussing topics whenever you feel like it. There is also nothing wrong with a station playing Christmas-related music whenever they feel like it.

This is just another case of people needing to get over themselves.

In my humble opinion, of course.