I woke up this morning to my radio station playing straight Christmas music. While I am not a Scrooge by any means, I think it is a bit soon for endless holiday music. What do you say? When do you think radio stations and stores should start playing holiday music?
Chrismas music should not be played in November for sure. I must preface that I am not the Grinch or Mr. Scrooge. Quite the contrary actually, because I love Christmas. But why, oh why is Christmas music already on the radio and playing in department stores, not to mention the ridiculous amount of Christmas commercials already airing on television? Come on. It is just now mid-November and Christmas music has been playing for weeks.
Christmas has become the holiday bully. Thanksgiving has always been overshadowed by Christmas, and New Year’s Eve is just a party with left over Christmas decorations and booze. Now, Christmas is even beginning to stomp on Halloween. When I was shopping for a Halloween costume for my boyfriend at Target, I was shocked to see Christmas trees on display. Really? Christmas trees in October?
Thanksgiving is too good a holiday to give up. Thanksgiving food is probably my favorite thing about it, but more importantly, Thanksgiving should be a time to recognize everything we should be thankful for. Yeah, the economy might be down the toilet, but we still have plenty of thanks to give — for example cheap gas prices and the Alabama’s football team dominating. I guess we could go as far to say Thanksgiving is kind of like what Christmas is supposed to be like without presents, but that still doesn’t mean that Christmas should take over Thanksgiving.
I think the day after Thanksgiving is a reasonable beginning for Christmas decorations, music, presents, cookies, etc. I mean, if we are really going to listen to Christmas songs, then what happened to the 12 days of Christmas? Seriously, why do we need two whole months to prepare for Christmas?
I could ramble on and on about how our society has turned Christmas into a commercial holiday, but you have all heard that too many times before. But really, if anyone needs two months to buy all the presents for friends and family, they have truly taken the holiday out of context.
I know there are many students on our campus who do not celebrate Christmas and I’m sure by now they have stopped reading this because it does not really apply to them. But if you are still reading, I think everyone can learn something from the Christmas spirit, even if you do not believe in the Christian aspects of Christmas.
Christmas is about family, friends and giving. No, I do not mean excessive giving. Instead of spending millions on frivolous gifts, maybe we can share the wealth. Don’t get me wrong, I love getting presents on Christmas, but I would probably have an incredible Christmas if I only got about half of them. I think the right thing for us to do would be to ask our parents for half of the presents and ask them to donate some of the money to charities or less fortunate people.
Christmas should be about spending time with family and friends, giving and sharing the experience with them, not how many fancy presents you get. So I’m going to challenge you all. Let’s see how little you can spend on Christmas gifts for your friends and family this year. But that’s not all — let’s see how thoughtful, rather than commercial, your gifts can be. So once you’ve finished eating all your leftovers, whip out some of your favorite memories and pictures, tape, glue, paper, etc., and make some thoughtful gifts for your friends and family. It’ll be fun.