Fresh when it gets here from
Julie Barrett
Thursday, November 22, 2007
When do you personally start celebrating the holiday season?
What happened to the days when the start of the Christmas season was marked by the appearance of Santa at the end of the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade?
Gads, I sound like an old curmudgeon. Next think you know, I'll be shaking my cane in the air and screaming, "why, when I was your age..." to anyone within earshot who happens to be younger than me. (This is the cane I'll be waving around.)
There are only two early displays of yuletide goodies that I tolerate. One is Christmas section at the crafts store, because it does take time to knit those hats with earflaps for all 37 people on your list. The other is a store fixtures business down in Dallas. They put a giant Santa statue in front of their building in July. One would think that poor St. Nick might wilt in our 100 degree summer temps, but he survives. The reason for the display is that stores typically start buying for Christmas six months in advance. People around here expect to see Santa in July. It's a tradition. But only at that one spot.
And then there's the State Fair season in October when we're reminded that this:
used to be a statue of Santa. I wonder how many kids got nightmares from that?
We generally don't decorate the house until mid-December, or sometimes later. We prefer a live tree, and tend to wait until the 15th or so to buy it. I don't think my sinuses can stand a full month of a live fir tree in the house. We decorate when we put up the tree.
Extra Credit: Do you dream of a White Christmas (or Hanukkah, or Kwanzaa, or Winter Solstice, etc), just like the ones you used to know?
I live in North Texas (I grew up in this area) and any sort of snow in December is very atypical. In fact, average highs in December are in the 50s and 60s - not exactly snow-making weather.
Well, it's time for us to get ready for our Thanksgiving celebration. Hope you all have a good one!
Tags: Weekend Assignment