Christmas Decorations

Yeah, I know it’s a tired subject, but when I start hearing Christmas songs, catching Christmas TV ads and seeing yards adorned with cheesy wire-mesh animatronic deer, all before Thanksgiving has arrived, I tend to lose my shit a bit. I’m not even going to start about the depths to which people will sink when decorating their houses. And don’t even get me going about those retarded inflatable decorations that are now available for every damn holiday imaginable (I won’t even link to the fuckers). I went out to the store tonight and saw a bunch of houses garishly decorated on the way. In the store, they were playing Christmas music over the speakers. And me? I’m still getting the tryptophan out of my system.

But you know what struck me as I drove home? No, not a pedestrian or a truck, but a thought: how pathetic is it that so many of us are so suckered into this concept of overdoing everything that we start decorating over a month before an event? While I know that some people are truly overjoyed by the concept of Christmas, I find it hard to believe that there are so many, so excited. I understand why retailers are so big into pushing the holiday (hint: must…make…sales), but why has their enthusiasm overflowed the levees of common sense and flooded the minds of the masses like a city below sea level after a hurricane?

What? Too soon for Katrina analogies?

Anyway, I find it entirely disheartening that so many decorations are set up so early. Let me step back from my soap box and give a simple reason: it ruins the excitement of the holiday. I’m a pretty cynical fuck anyway, so I lost whatever Christmas spirit I once had many years ago and don’t expect to find it again anytime soon (especially when I work jobs that require me work on some holidays), but I know people who would truly like to be excited about this particular holiday. But when the decorations are set up over a month in advance, it’s impossible to keep up the enthusiasm. There is no Viagra for holiday burnout; I just can’t keep it up that long. It takes all meaning, all the fun, all the excitement out of the holiday when its set up so far in advance. By the time Christmas rolls around, all the lights, blow-up-dolls and santa-flew-into-a-tree gags have gotten so old, boring and trashy that they might as well decorate a bunch of cars up on blocks in the front yards of every house around.

Wouldn’t it be amazing if everyone just held off until the week before Christmas to set up their decorations? Think about that for a moment; only a week of decorations before the main event. That’s enough time to drive around and marvel at what freaks people are (or enjoy the decorations, if that’s your thing) without having them out for so long as to become nothing more than background noise. Imagine no Christmas music, no Christmas ads, and no Christmas lights until a week before the day. Wouldn’t that raise the level of excitement? Wouldn’t you look forward to that day when all the lights came on at once? Wouldn’t counting merely seven days off an Advent calendar lift your spirits as opposed to “Hey, it must be October because I saw my first Christmas ad”? Wouldn’t it be nice if we could all just show a little restraint in order to put a little more excitement and meaning into an event that so many hold dear?

I dunno, it’s just a thought I had driving home from the store with a six pack. Yeah, and I’m not apologizing for not representing all the other religions. I grew up with Christmas, so that’s my frame of reference; bite me and go bitch about your own holidays on your own blog.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 28th, 2005 at 11:16pm and is filed under Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.