I'll admit it: I was one of those people who got annoyed when stores put up their Christmas decorations too early. I even complained once when I lived in Provo and I saw a J.C. Penny's putting up their trees in the middle of October. It didn't do any good, but I've never been one to sit quietly back when I don't like something! As far as I was concerned, if Thanksgiving was still on the horizon, then it was too soon. End of discussion. I even tried (with not much success) to tell Craig we couldn't listen to Christmas music until after Thanksgiving!
But then I read this blog post on Thinking Through Christianity (one of my favorite blogs, and it isn't even run by a Mormon!) and reconsidered. Stores kind of need to put up their decorations early, especially if they're selling these decorations to those of us who will decorate the day after Thanksgiving. Besides that, there really isn't any point to getting upset about the early decorations, so why bother? So I told myself that I was no longer allowed to be annoyed by the commercialization of Christmas.
And then today, Craig made another excellent point: even with the decorations up so early, the Christmas season still seems way too short. (Which is why I'm still working on sending out Christmas cards AND why we're still occasionally listening to Christmas music around here. That, and the snow today sort of demanded it, somehow.)
So I am no longer simply not getting annoyed by all the early hype. Next year, I'm just going to embrace it. Because really, why wouldn't we want Christmas to last as long as possible?
1 comment:
I've always been annoyed about that, too, but your arguments are really good. Also, I realized last year that I would get so annoyed before it was "time" to put up decorations, that then I had a hard time enjoying the decorations even in December! So this year I decided just to be happy for Christmastime, and it was much for more. :0)
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