Just Say No to Early Christmas

As we approach Thanksgiving I am reminded that this really is the most wonderful time of the year. The weather is turning colder, NFL football and college football are in full swing and of course you have the trifecta of big holidays all in a condensed time, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s. So this is what it must feel like to be Jewish, holidays all the time.

However, the holidays can bring out a lot of bad in people too, which leads me today’s blog. There is a rule, this rule is iron clad, it can not be amended and it must not be violated. The rule reads as follows: “The overall celebration and general observance of the holiday of Christmas shall not begin until the first Friday following the day of Thanksgiving. No houses shall be decorated; no trees are to be put up. It is also not permissible for radio stations to be playing 24 hours of Christmas music until the said Friday.”

I do not want to alarm any of the good readers of CultureFeast, but I must inform you that this rule is being broken all the time. There were stores selling Christmas gear long before Halloween, one of my neighbors has already put up his Christmas lights, but it gets worse: In many areas in this vast land of ours local radio stations have already started their continuous non-stopped Christmas music programming. Why in the world would you do that even after Thanksgiving? A little Christmas music here and there is nice, but playing only Christmas music can become rather boring (unless it is the Trans Siberian Orchestra playing “Carol of the Bells”, that rocks).

Now if some day AC/DC or Def Leppard want to do a Christmas album I will be all for it and will add to my family holiday tradition. But even if these legends of rock were to make such an album I would still hold on to my belief in the law of no Christmas celebration until after Thanksgiving. We must rid this scourge from the earth, instead of adding value to either holiday it ends up diminishing both.