Sunday, November 16, 2008

Ah, the holiday season

Tell me if this happens in your town: Yesterday while flipping stations on the radio, I discovered that they've already begun 24 hour Christmas music. Sigh. Bad enough that it used to happen the day after Thanksgiving; now it starts mid-November? What's next year, Daylight Savings??!! What is this madness??????

Don't get me wrong--I love the music. I do. But if I overdose on it for over a month before the actual holiday (I happen to celebrate Christmas), I begin to dread those beloved songs. Ouiser, how does M feel about this? I know it's his favorite holiday. Doesn't this whole "start early" bit seem a little pushy as well? I'm sorry to complain; it's just a pet peeve of mine. Snow has started to fly and I'm already mentally planning my Thanksgiving contributions (found a recipe for whole wheat corn muffins with a dash of cayenne--I may do a trial batch to see if they're worth it) and gift-giving, but I can't do Christmas music yet. I make myself wait until Dec. 1. The only exception may include the Peanuts Christmas because Vince Garabaldi rocks that album.

On the note of gift giving, in this time of economic crisis, do we really need to spend a ton of money on gifts? I've been reading in my magazines about how to give back or use that money to make a donation to a food bank. Or give the gift of your time, like offering to babysit or help someone clean her house if you're super organized. I can't see myself giving nothing, but honestly, I may give this year in the form of something edible for the most part. My sister has no cash but she gardens--I told her to get us some seeds. You know, give something really thoughtful that has more effort than consumerism involved in it. I admit, I look through the catalogues and dog-ear pages, but this year I want to try something different, or at least more thoughtful. I'll let you know how it turns out. Any thoughts?

4 comments:

Ouiser said...

in Lexington, there was a station what went 24/7 onto Christmas music on Nov. 1. M even thinks that's overkill. He waits until the day after Thanksgiving, but we've had a slight exception this year. We bought S a Christmas sing along CD as we want her to learn some Christmas songs, and we've started playing that every now and again because, seriously, I can imagine very few things cuter than my kid singing Jingle Bells.

Also, we just gave a food bank donation as a birthday gift, and it was great on all accounts. GO FOR IT!!

die Frau said...

No, I do love little kids singing, especially "Jingle Bells". That's a legitimate exception!

innspecter said...

I have to say that christmas music is what I love about the holiday more than anything else, so I listen to it when I feel like feeling christmas-y. Plus if you don't like the station, change it. What bothers me and is harder to escape is the store displays...which started Nov. 1st. I'm still in halloween hangover country at that point, and really don't care for christmas yet.
(And it's Guarald. And he does rock.)

die Frau said...

All right, Guaraldi. We were both partially wrong. Sure, you can change the station--the displays do get a little in your face so early on.