As we all know, Christmas is December 25th. But it seems to arrive
earlier each year. Here we are…the middle of September. The official start of
autumn (here in the northern hemisphere) is Thursday, September 22, 2016. We've
barely cleared the summer season. Halloween is still over a month away and
Thanksgiving is two months away. But none of that seems to make any difference.
As far as some retailers are concerned, Christmas is rapidly
approaching. In fact, it's almost here. Yep…that's right. I've already seen
Christmas decorations, Christmas cards, Christmas wrapping paper and other
things Christmas in the stores next to the displays of Halloween candy and
masks.
It's a little disconcerting. Winter weather is definitely
not here. There's nothing outside that even pretends to resemble the pictures
on Christmas cards showing the snow-laden pine and fir trees, pristine snow
covering the landscape (before it turns to dirty slush), and a perfect snowman out
there in the wilderness complete with top hat and scarf around his neck rather than the lopsided snowman in
someone's front yard. And there's the charming country cottage with the smoke
curling from the chimney and an old-fashioned sleigh being pulled by a horse.
How can you even think of chestnuts roasting on an open fire
and Jack Frost nipping at your nose when the temperature is in the mid 80s? I
do realize that there are lots of places where nice warm weather is common at
Christmas time. Hawaii and southern Florida come to mind. And, of course, in
the southern hemisphere Christmas arrives in the middle of summer. But even
with the places in the U.S. that experience warm weather year round, wouldn't
it be nice to get Halloween and Thanksgiving out of the way before concentrating
on Christmas?
I, personally, would rather finish with one holiday before
embarking on the next one. Maybe that has to do with my childhood. My birthday
is in mid December and my parents always made sure that it was clearly
separated from Christmas. The tree and decorations did not go up until after my
birthday.
2 comments:
I'm with you. It's hard to get into the holiday spirit when they overlap like this.
Sandra: The last 2 days here have been in the mid-high 90s...definitely not Christmas (or even Thanksgiving) weather. Hard to think about crisp cold air other than wishing some of it would come my way.
Thanks for your comment.
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