It was the week before Hallowe’en, and the Missus and I were cruising down Peachtree Street on the way home from some performance event or another, when I noticed that at least one building was already bedecked with Christmas decorations.
Good Gawd, thought I to myself. The Christmas season gets earlier every year. It’s a phenomenon I call “Christmas Creep.”
It used to be that the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade served as the semi-official Starting Gun for seasonal festivities - here in the States, anyway. As soon as that float with Santa Claus cruised down Broadway, the Christmas music began playing and everything took on the green and red shades of Yuletide.
Over time, owing to the increasing greed and desperation of the Merchandising Industry, this perfectly sensible schedule has been done away with. Now, the season’s opening shot is sometime on - or even before - Hallowe’en.
Hey, it’s none of my business; I don’t really have a dog in this hunt. But I have a question to which I sincerely would like an answer: Does Christmas Creep add to the seasonal experience, or does it detract?
We Jews really don’t have anything to use as a basis for comparison. We have our holidays, our own Seasonal Events...but we tend to observe them (or ignore them, as the case may be) when it is time to do so, neither being overly anticipatory as the Big Day (or Week) approaches nor too reluctant to let go once it is over with.
F’r instance, we don’t put up Passover decorations...and if we did, it wouldn’t be a month or two in advance. There’d be some sort of Talmudic prohibition against it, as it would take away from the specialness of the holiday. But that’s us, and I know we’re wacky in our own way.
So: I ask you, my Christian Esteemed Readers. What are your thoughts on Christmas Creep? Good? Bad? Indifferent?
Good Gawd, thought I to myself. The Christmas season gets earlier every year. It’s a phenomenon I call “Christmas Creep.”
It used to be that the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade served as the semi-official Starting Gun for seasonal festivities - here in the States, anyway. As soon as that float with Santa Claus cruised down Broadway, the Christmas music began playing and everything took on the green and red shades of Yuletide.
Over time, owing to the increasing greed and desperation of the Merchandising Industry, this perfectly sensible schedule has been done away with. Now, the season’s opening shot is sometime on - or even before - Hallowe’en.
Hey, it’s none of my business; I don’t really have a dog in this hunt. But I have a question to which I sincerely would like an answer: Does Christmas Creep add to the seasonal experience, or does it detract?
We Jews really don’t have anything to use as a basis for comparison. We have our holidays, our own Seasonal Events...but we tend to observe them (or ignore them, as the case may be) when it is time to do so, neither being overly anticipatory as the Big Day (or Week) approaches nor too reluctant to let go once it is over with.
F’r instance, we don’t put up Passover decorations...and if we did, it wouldn’t be a month or two in advance. There’d be some sort of Talmudic prohibition against it, as it would take away from the specialness of the holiday. But that’s us, and I know we’re wacky in our own way.
So: I ask you, my Christian Esteemed Readers. What are your thoughts on Christmas Creep? Good? Bad? Indifferent?
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