Tis the Season?
So yesterday baby doll (my youngest kiddo) had a birthday party to go to. With my husband and game boy off to see the AC/DC concert in D.C. it was just me and baby doll for the evening. Trying to think of a good way to spend the evening, I was coming up at a loss until one of my fellow moms told me about the tree lighting ceremony at the local mall.
So in the pouring rain, I scooped baby doll up and headed off to the mall. Now I have mixed feelings about the holidays. While I am one that strives to have holiday gift shopping completed before black Friday, I’m also not one who likes the idea that retailers are so damn eager to skip over holidays to get to others. Still, I managed to find a few good bargains, and much to my happiness, I’m pretty much done with all my holiday gift buying.
Still, knowing we’re not quite two weeks away from Thanksgiving yet, it was weird and a little frustrating to hear the local brass band playing Christmas music while the giant tree was lit. I mean don’t get me wrong, I’ll be outside braving whatever weather may come to put up my decorations the weekend after Thanksgiving. The weekend before Christmas I’ll be in the kitchen baking batches of cookies to the tunes of Trans Siberian Orchestra and Bing Crosby, to hand out to all my friends, but I do that knowing Christmas is the next holiday to celebrate.
At what point did we as consumers start letting the retailers dictate when the holidays started and ended. Really, I mean come on, Halloween candy is put out before school starts now and back to school shopping is pushed on us the week after the kids get out for summer vacation. And as always, Christmas trees are on display at the local K-mart before the kids have even had the chance to count all their Halloween loot.
Don’t get me wrong here. I’m not scrooge. I like a good holiday as much as the next person, but can we keep things in perspective, please?
