- On Thursday morning (November 16th) my morning alarm clock quacked on at the normal hour of 6:50. It was quacking "Deck The Halls." I thought it was an anomaly. A joke. A little pre-thanksgiving ha ha ha.
- Later in the morning I headed over the the local nursery, thinking it would be open at 8:00 a.m. - - but alas didn't open until 8:30. I stopped in the neighborhood McDonald's to grab a cuppa while I waited and while standing in line was assaulted with "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas!" What the heck? I realized that it wasn't a joke, or an anomaly. This was full on Christmas music assault.
To be clear, I like Christmas music. I probably like it more than the normal person. I spend the whole month of December swimming around in Christmas Music, happily immersed in all tunes festive. What I don't like is having Christmas tunes usurp other holidays. Like Thanksgiving. I want to be able to plan my turkey day humming "We Gather Together" and not "Little Drummer Boy."
I know that we're an impatient nation. We (or at least our marketing folks and merchandisers) are eager to have access to Halloween stuff in late August, Easter stuff in January and ,as I'm coming to realize, Christmas stuff all-frickin-year-long. Pretty soon they're just going to have to air Charlie Brown's The Great Pumpkin, The Thanksgiving Special AND the Christmas Special on the same damned day.
If the merchandisers get their way, we may just be able to skip right over Thanksgiving. It's kind of a marketing bust any way. Besides turkey farms, canned yam facilities and Libby's, most suppliers and retailers don't get a big bang out of selling the latest in cornucopia wear. Pumpkins purchased over Halloween are still out on porches - so it's a bit of a two-fer - not good for selling Thanksgiving stuff. The only good thing for retailers has been the traditional "Black Friday" where all manner of things go on "Super Sale!!!" and patrons and workers are killed and mutilated in the stampeding hordes that wish to save $5 on the latest Wii game.
Except I noticed this year, that to avoid the hordes, the stampeding AND the whole idea of "Black Friday" nearly all retailers are open on - - you know it's coming, don't you??? - THANKSGIVING DAY!! Hell, shove your turkey down your gullet and let's get the hell in to the car and head over to Old Navy. Scarves are on sale for $2.50~~ HURRY!!!!
Wrong. It's just wrong. Well, I gotta run to the grocery to shop for my Thanksgiving feast supplies. I will be humming "We Gather Together" as I do it. Any one want to join me?
2 comments:
LOVE that you are as perplexed by this wrong doing as much as I have always been, even so much so as my kids make out loud verbal disdain in the stores due to the wrong holiday being displayed.
Tis the Season ;)
For some reason my favorite radio station took to playing 24hr Christmas songs almost immediately following Halloween. Usually they wait until the day after Thanksgiving. It's disconcerting to be sure. Like you, I love a carol, classic Christmas tune or even a top 40 remix, but I think by December 25 I will want to rumpapumpum the little drummer boy upside his head! Add to this that we live with a combination Scrooge and Grinch - a patriarchal Scrinch if you will - which makes it all the worse.
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