Taking the JOY out of Christmas.

Yesterday I had a really great day.

I got up and started to clean the kitchen from the night before- I just hadn't had the energy nor the desire, truth be told, to do it after eating. Some days you just cant be bothered. Right?

Anyway, I was running a sink of water and went over to the radio to see if I could tune in something peppy to help things along, and as I was turning the dial, lo and behold I heard a snatch of Michael Bolton singing what I would have sworn was "I'll Be Bome for Christmas".

I stopped dead in my tracks and returned to it after a nano-seconds hesitation.

It was indeed exactly who and what I thought and I was absolutely delighted! Then another Christmas selection came on after it- and another and another after that one. The two easy listening stations in the area are now playing Christmas tunes all weekend until Thanksgiving Day and then it will be all holiday tunes-all the time.

I got my dishes done quickly and then it got me in gear to go ahead and dig all my Christmas decorations out of the hallway where everything we have packed for our move is stacked up. And that reminded me we didn't have a Christmas wreath because the Grapevine wreath I made about 6 years ago and didn't shelack finally disintergrated this summer in the hundred degree weather, which we have been having all six summers. So then I got out all my decorations and somewhere I had read about someone making a holiday wreath from a small sized hula-hoop and I had one just sitting there, not being used because I bought one last year and swore I was going to learn to hula-hoop again because since I had kids I cant hula hoop for more than one swoop, and decided to try to make one(Wreath) with what I had.

So I did.

I just wrapped the white flower garland from our wedding around it and taped it in place. Then filled in with a green pine garland from leftover Christmas decorations I had and secured it in place. Then I secured some artificial English Ivy along the bottom. A nice bit of it to fill the bottom out nicely and then I finished it off by adding a thin ribbon of red curly foil garland spiraled from where the ivy ends on one side up and over the top and down the other side to where the ivy begins on the other side.

It was very nice for something started from an unused Hoola-Hoop and leftover decorations and it looks perfect on our front door which is painted red.

Anyway- I hung it up for the day to decide if I really liked it or if it was just the novelty- and to get my kids reaction to it.

My daughters fiancee, Mike, looked out the window of their house and asked her to "Please tell me that's not a CHRISTMAS wreath your mom has hung on her front door".

Julie just laughed and said "Yep- probally is. She starts getting things out about this time every year."
She didn't even come look. She KNOWS me.

But this retail holiday thing is getting WAY out of hand.
Retailers are ruining it for us. Even Hardcore Christmasers like me.


I'm sorry, but starting to see Christmas advertising just after the 4th of July is really starting to piss me off. I don't wanna see that stuff that early! Sure I start my Christmas shopping about that time of year- but it stays put away until after just after Thanksgiving when it goes under the tree.
I think there should be a law that says Christmas retailing absolutely, positively CANNOT and or WILL NOT be started until the day after Thanksgiving. AND Christmas decorations cannot be put up in retail stores until the weekend AFTER Thanksgiving.

I have to start getting my things out three weeks before Thanksgiving to get everything sorted in relation to what theme I am planning on doing. (Someday, when we get a proper house of our own- I will have enough space to have it all sorted into seperate boxes and labeled so I wont have to go thru this process. But for now it's how I have to do it.) Then the weekend before Thanksgiving I put up my tree if it's an artificial one and have JUST the lights on it. It's Thanksgiving tradition to decorate the tree on Thanksgiving night- altho for the past couple of Christmases due to schedules with kids having the other side of the family to visit, Paulius and/or I have decorated it except for the kids "Special" ornament, which they always put on themselves.
Yes- I stole that tradition from the Horton Family on Days Of Our Lives but I knew that was how I wanted my holiday party to be with all the family there and happy and having a GRAND time, and if seeing them put their "Special"ornament on the tree makes me happy , so what? DOOL should be thrilled I DID steal the idea from them.

Anyway- that's just how I feel about it.
And it really makes me mad that anything about Christmas- my favorite holiday of the year- is being done this way.

Altho I have to admit that retailers aren't singling out Christmas as being special by early marketing. They are doing it with all the major money-making holidays.

But I don't want them to take the Joy out of MY Christmas.
They can just stop it right now.
I'm writing my Congressman.



***(Sorry about the run-on sentences and the rambling paragraphs and such. I just needed to write the way I was thinking today and that's how it came out. Come think of it- that's how I talk too. Read this non-stop as fast as you can without stopping to take a breath until you absolutely run out of breath and that's exactly how I talk. Have pity on Paulius, it's no wonder I drive him nuts!)***