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Christmas Time Is Here, By Golly!

  • Nov. 27th, 2006 at 10:33 PM
oh good god
frenchpony
Disapproval would be folly. Even though it's not even December yet, the Christmas Machine is in full swing. Seriously, I was at Midway Airport on Thanksgiving Day, waiting to fly home to Mom and Dad Pony, and there are ornaments and poinsettia trees everywhere. . . and endless Christmas carols playing on the sound system. You'd think that Thanksgiving didn't even exist any more. On the other hand, a longer Christmas season means more peppermint candy canes for Pony, and I love a good candy cane. So it has its upsides, too.

It's not that I don't like the Christmas season -- I do enjoy it. I like the candy, and I like the concerts (especially the Lyric's sing-along Messiah), and I really like the Christkindlmarkt in Daley Plaza. I just wish it didn't begin quite so early. Oh, well. As long as I can find a box of Chanukah candles in the next few days, all will be well. CVS doesn't have them, but Walgreens might.

Apropos of nothing at all, Lexi the begonia looks like she's starting to bloom again. All her flowers frizzled off in the heat wave this summer, and then I trimmed her back severely for the move. But she's been growing and thriving on my living-room windowsill. I recently repotted her, and I think she's going to have lovely peach-colored flowers again soon. Yay Lexi!
  • Current Music:Portuguese Hymn

Comments

( 24 comments — Leave a comment )
karenator001
Nov. 28th, 2006 02:18 pm (UTC)
Yeah, I know what you mean about the Christmas machine cranking up earlier and earlier every year. We seem to go from Back-To-School to Christmas. Halloween gets a slight bump, but before it's over, the 'stuff' is coming out. Thanksgiving hardly gets an honorable mention.

As Only Husband and I were driving someplace or another recently and many halls were starting to sports signs of decking, I kept muttering: "I hate Christmas. I hate Christmas." Which I do. It wears me completely out and always has. He mentioned I was slightly negative. Which I am. So now, I pass by the jolly lights, trees and tinsel and mutter in the same tone as my first mantra: "I love Christmas. I love Christmas." So far, it's not working.
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frenchpony
Nov. 28th, 2006 03:45 pm (UTC)
I read where some stores were starting their sales at midnight of Thanksgiving, or sometimes on Thanksgiving day. And then the papers have all these pictures of mob scenes in Targets at some ungodly hour of the morning. That just makes me want to curl up and weep in embarrassment for the image that other people see of us. I have to say, I am a great supporter of the Buy-Nothing-Day movement. But do you suppose that "buy-nothing" extends to movie tickets?
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karenator001
Nov. 28th, 2006 03:59 pm (UTC)
I read where some stores were starting their sales at midnight of Thanksgiving, or sometimes on Thanksgiving day

They did that here in the Southern Realm too, without the Queen's consent, I might add. The mobs were unbelievable--I'm told, no personal experience. I did have to make a quick Walmart run and at mid-afternoon, it was pretty quiet. I went to Office Depot the same afternoon--day after Thanksgiving--and it was sort of dull too. Maybe everyone was home taking a nap.

The whole thing is past ridiculous. I don't think we have Buy-Nothing-Day around here, but I'd support it. In fact, I do just that as often as I can.
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frenchpony
Nov. 29th, 2006 04:05 am (UTC)
It's just sad to see so many people sitting huddled up at a store in the cold when they should be home happily sleeping off a big ol' turkey and tryptophan dinner. It's not like we live in the former Soviet Union here. The goods will be there all month. Except for the ones that are being kept on an artificial shortage so that CNN can get footage of shoppers beating each other to pulp over a talking doll, of course.
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perelleth
Nov. 28th, 2006 05:22 pm (UTC)
But do you suppose that "buy-nothing" extends to movie tickets? What movie are you thinking of watching?

I also hate the early beginning of the season...and that commercial madness. Do not worry, it has been so cleverly marketed that now everyone wants to be like you, and flock to the shops in crazed mobs and shoot someone dead for a nintendo or something...

The frenzy starts a bit later around here, but it lasts until Jan 6th. I have already finished my Xmas shopping this year, though.(A first in many years)

So I can begin worrying about the moving.
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frenchpony
Nov. 29th, 2006 04:06 am (UTC)
No, no, you don't want to be like us! One U.S. of A. is plenty, the world doesn't need any more!

My friend and I went to see a movie on the evening after Thanksgiving. I don't see her very often, nor do I go to the movies that often, which makes it a special treat on both accounts. We saw For Your Consideration, which was charming but nothing special, and then we went to a coffee shop for some tea and chitchat.
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(Deleted comment)
frenchpony
Nov. 29th, 2006 04:07 am (UTC)
And begonias are so pretty when they're in bloom, too! This just cheers me right up.
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kaikias
Nov. 29th, 2006 12:03 am (UTC)
I have to agree—Christmas season in this household starts around St. Nicholas's Day, darn it, and I'll cheerily ignore or just deliver a snarky comment or two on any Christmas-related content that comes before that.

Also, ee, flowers!
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frenchpony
Nov. 29th, 2006 04:08 am (UTC)
Flowers and candy canes. It's important to squeeze the good things out of life.
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elliska
Nov. 29th, 2006 12:20 am (UTC)
The malls here had Christmas ornaments and musak in late September. And most malls here were open Thanskgiving day, all day, with sales. Their excuse: foreign tourists don't know what Thanksgiving is and they expect ot be able to entertain themselves. My response: American salespeople do know what Thanksgiving is; they have families to entertain; and foreign tourists can respect the culture as I do when I travel abroad.

The whole thing has seemd particularly bad/commercial this year and I really don't like it.
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frenchpony
Nov. 29th, 2006 04:10 am (UTC)
If there is nothing better for foreign tourists to do than go to the malls, then our culture is in major league trouble.

Last year, there was much ado about The War On Christmas. I tell you, the more I see of this Christmas-in-November thing, the more I support making war on Christmas. Or at least the commercial aspects of it.
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meggins
Nov. 29th, 2006 01:48 am (UTC)
Lexi is enjoying her place in the sun. Hooray!
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frenchpony
Nov. 29th, 2006 04:10 am (UTC)
She's really doing wonderfully. She's grown, gotten bushy, gotten repotted, and finally she's repaying my efforts with her. What a great plant.
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dawn_felagund
Nov. 29th, 2006 01:55 am (UTC)
I love the Christmas season too, but it does start ridiculously early. When I worked at The Piece, Hallmark used to put up their Christmas ornament display in...July?? The mall now hangs lights 1 November and Santa arrived not long after.

Nope, I'm old school, and it starts day-after-Thanksgiving. Starting too early ruins it.

(Though, out of necessity, Christmas candy is usually in full-swing my mid-October.)
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frenchpony
Nov. 29th, 2006 04:12 am (UTC)
The first of November? July!!?!?!?!?!?! Good God. And I thought the day after Thanksgiving was too early. But what do I know? Ain't even my holiday.

(Though, out of necessity, Christmas candy is usually in full-swing my mid-October.)

Yeah, but you're making the candy. That's different.
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meckinock
Nov. 29th, 2006 02:01 am (UTC)
I hear we're having a kerfluffle at the Christkindlmarkt because New Line was a sponsor and they wanted to play video loop of the new movie about the Nativity. It made Drudge.

I love the roasted almond booth down there.

Any weekday that I don't manage to sneak out for lunch is a Buy Nothing Day for me.
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frenchpony
Nov. 29th, 2006 04:15 am (UTC)
The new movie about the Nativity? That'll go a treat with the giant menorah. . .

Although, I have to say, I like the menorah. Specifically, I like imagining all these vendors coming over from Germany, all excited to be helping to spread this lovely Christmas tradition in Chicago, and then seeing a giant menorah smack in front of their booth selling Christmas tree ornaments. The cognitive dissonance definitely adds a little je ne sais quois to the atmosphere.

I like the almonds and the Glühwein. I especially like that you can get jars of the Glühwein spices so you can make it at home.
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jastaelf
Nov. 29th, 2006 02:04 am (UTC)
Can I just say that I absolutely HEART your icon?? 1776 is my bestest favouritest musical ever... and I adore John Adams. I so want to sing Abigail some day, but I'm getting too old... *g* Voice is fine, face is not, tho I suppose there's make-up... :-)
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frenchpony
Nov. 29th, 2006 04:16 am (UTC)
Well, by all means, here it is again for you!

My favorite musical, too. I saw the revival with Brent Spiner on Broadway, and that was fantastic! The man can really sing, something that Star Trek never really took advantage of, the way they did with Nichelle Nichols.

I've looked at the score, and Abigail is just scraping the top of my range, but I think I could swing the part.
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bodkin_ra
Nov. 29th, 2006 06:48 am (UTC)
Well - we don't do Thanksgiving, and Halloween is considered a bit of an aberration - (it merits an apologetic shelf) - while Guy Fawkes has clearly been declared politically incorrect. Christmas is starting to sneak its way onto the shelves about the time that the Back-to-School frenzy removes enough pencil cases. I don't think the muzak's started yet - but I'm not entirely sure. I've been avoiding the shops. The Garden Centres, though - they've been declaring the arrival of Christmas, fully supported by Santa, since mid-October.

It's enough to make anyone declare, 'Bah, humbug.'
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frenchpony
Nov. 29th, 2006 01:58 pm (UTC)
It's like the time between Back-To-School and Christmas has become a Retail Vacuum abhorred by Retail Nature. Seems that retailers and public decorators don't know what to do without a holiday, so they just s-t-r-e-t-c-h the ones they have. Holidays all year round!

Bleh. Makes me want to thwap them over the head with my folklore books.
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gwynhyffar
Nov. 29th, 2006 01:49 pm (UTC)
I would go so far as to say that Christmas before Thanksgiving pisses me off. Of course, Thanksgiving is probably my favourite holiday. How can you not love a holiday that falls on a Thursday??? Unless you work retail, you probably get Friday off. Nothing could be better than having Thanksgiving leftovers on Friday afternoon while sitting around in your pajamas.
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frenchpony
Nov. 29th, 2006 02:01 pm (UTC)
I did work retail for a brief time. And I had to go in to work on the Friday after Thanksgiving, and of course the Idiot Boss announced that there would be nothing but Christmas music played on the store's stereo from then until Christmas. After I complained, he did allow a few Hanukkah CDs during the appropriate week.

Fortunately, being a music person, I was able to subvert the dictum a little bit. Thank God for Bach's Weihnachtsoratorium, Handel's Messiah, Corelli's Christmas Concerto, and other great music. Idiot Boss would have been happy with the same CD of a children's choir singing "Frosty The Snowman" off-key all month. But the customers definitely preferred my way.
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( 24 comments — Leave a comment )