'Tis the season

I saw a fully lit Christmas tree in someones home window on the way to work today.

No surprise that, I suppose. The retailers have had their Christmas stuff up for some weeks now and it seems to me that at this rate, Christmas in July won't be the novelty thing it was intended to be.

I love Christmas, it's always been a great time for my family and I. I don't decorate the outside of my house, no giant inflatable Santa displays or even lights. I like the lights, but jeez its a lot of work. And I live in Buffalo, it's cold here in the winter, it snows, sometimes quite a bit. Sometimes I rationalize that I should go out and put up some outdoor decorations, just some lights, wreaths that sort of thing. I don't want those twig reindeer or inflatable things, I really think they're kinda tacky. But obviously, I'm in the minority here, they are EVERYWHERE!

But then I think, once the holiday is over, I'll have to be out there. In January. In Buffalo. And it doesn't seem like such a great idea. When the kids were small they were always lobbying to get the tree up early and go nuts. I always held the line here. (bah, humbug - I know)

The tree goes up after Thanksgiving and comes down New Years. After Christmas day I want the tree down - like on the 26th! I don't know why, but other than the post Christmas return and sale shopping orgy that follows, I'm just done, ya know?

Patti and I were out at a few stores yesterday and after 3 stores with the same Christmas songs playing over and over - I just don't know. It's just such an assault now. It seems kinda forced.
Don't even get me started on the 'Happy Holiday/Merry Christmas' thing. It's Christmas, deal with it.

And how about Thanksgiving? How come we can say Happy Thanksgiving? How does the American Indian population view that holiday? Little prediction here - within 10 years this holiday will be called something else - something soft and safe and completely meaningless and impotent.

I want to participate in the spirit of these holidays, but not in the practice of it. And I don't think I'm alone here. But the only way I can see to do that is to pull back. To make Christmas a thing that just happens inside my own home. And I think something is lost there as a community, that shared experience, completely mowed over by the twisted PC Juggernaut it's become.

And it's hard for me to view the holidays and not feel a sense of some loss.
m.