It’s the most magical time of the year. The time when we gather ‘round family and friends and enjoy each other’s company. The time of year when the world seems a little more peaceful as it’s blanketed in a white coat of frozen bliss. When we buy gifts for the ones that mean the most to us and reflect on the year that was. And that time of year is…
Mid-October?
That’s right, folks. Christmas is right around the corner, a measly two-and-a-half months away. Well, it is according to department stores. It isn’t a widespread pandemic quite yet, but some stores in the area are already loading up on Santas and stockings.
Is this really how important Christmas has gotten? We’ve already done away with Thanksgiving as anything more than a plethora of football games filled with commercials that “kick off” the Christmas season. And apparently Halloween is next in line to have its sanctity taken away.
We get it. There isn’t a whole lot that can be marketed to Thanksgiving. Beyond food, what will huge store chains sell us that is Thanksgiving related? Does anyone decorate specifically for Thanksgiving? They decorate for autumn in general, but for Thanksgiving alone there isn’t much that can be done. It’s sort of the marquis holiday for autumn.
But Halloween … Halloween has so much going for it — costumes for kids and adults alike, candy for trick-or-treaters and pre-Halloween binging, skeleton decorations for making lawns scary or friendly pranks. It’s all there, every marketing ploy and every product that can be Halloween-themed. So why destroy another holiday?
As with war, even one death is one too many. We’ve already lost Thanksgiving to the greed of Christmas. We need to make sure no more innocent holidays are lost. If we let Halloween fall, what’s next?
Where do we draw the line for Christmas’ aggression that is, quite frankly, unwarranted? We say that line is Halloween, and even that’s a line too far we think, and we will not yield our position.
So let’s keep Christmas where it belongs: in it’s own little marshmallow world where treetops glisten and children listen, where Rudolph with his nose so bright guides Santa’s sleigh on Christmas night and where Christmas paraphernalia isn’t sold in mid-October.
