Hallowe’en is o’er, and you know what that means…Christmas is just around the corner! But it is STILL around the corner. Let’s not get our corners confused here! When I was a kid, Thanksgiving was the official kickoff of the Christmas season, and at our house we lamented even that. We weren’t allowed to get Christmassy until after St. Nicholas’ Day (Dec. 6)!
What has happened? It’s more than just a case of “when I was a kid.” Christmas definitely has been creeping earlier into the fall every year. When I say that Christmas has “done” this, though, of course I mean that the freaking corporations have “shoved it down our throats.” For years some radio stations switched to a Christmas-only format in December. But now they do it on Nov. 1st! Is Hallowe’en so holy? Why not start earlier? Why is only Thanksgiving thus trampled?
It’s because Thanksgiving has now become not just a kickoff point, but rather a part of Christmas. It comes as no surprise in the stores ($), but Christmas lights on houses and trees in living rooms, already in early- to mid-November, show that it infects our homes. Thanksgiving has been reduced to a Christmas run-through!
The commercials want us to think that “Happy Holidays” includes the pilgrims (although they didn’t even celebrate Christmas). No one says “Happy Holidays” and means Thanksgiving, because no one says that until December. I’m not a nut-job trying to reclaim the purity of Christmas. I just want to give each holiday its due.
Two theories on why Thanksgiving has been Christmasized:
1) People are sad, and Christmas makes them happy. Why not be happy for two solid months instead of one?
2) Christmas has been so watered down that people honestly can’t tell the two holidays apart.
The second one is absolutely true. Since WWII, Christmas has meant being home with the ones you love, and who can blame homesick GI’s for wanting that? But the business world realized how money this was, and we’ve never looked back. How many touching Full-House-style sitcom moments have we seen where it’s revealed that “Christmas isn’t about presents, or decorations or anything like that.” (…okay, agreed…) “Christmas is about being with the ones you love.”
Try again. Or, just leave it to the one Christmas special that got it right.
In any case, let’s wait until December. We don’t want to anger any pilgrim ghosts with our papist revelry!
And you thought Hallowe'en was o'er.
. Home James, and Don't Spare the Horses 