by P. M. Montgomery

Created on: November 11, 2009

In years past, I remember when the Christmas decorations would appear in the department stores after Thanksgiving. Santa would make his grand entrance the day after and we would hear Christmas music from then until Christmas. Not anymore. Now it seems like Christmas and the inevitable advertising that goes along with it, begins sometime around Halloween.

Christmas has become so commercialized that by the time it gets here, most people I know are ready for it to be over. Tired of the Christmas music, tired of the commercials and tired of the decorations that were put up months ago. Advertisers seem to be under the impression that we, as consumers, have forgotten when Christmas is and the commercials on television have started way too early. Evidently, Wall Street long ago forgot the true meaning of the entire holiday season, and now it is just about spending money.

It is a shame that we are not able to celebrate Christmas the way we used to do in the "olden days" when I was young. The children born in this time will never be able to fully appreciate this wonderful time of year. The anticipation and joy of waiting for Santa have been somewhat denied them by the overlong holiday season. This is just my opinion, of course, but from the end of October until the end of December they are being bombarded with commercials for Christmas. Even a child will become bored after seeing them over and over again, thus taking some of the joy away.

With Santa showing up in some of the department stores earlier than Thanksgiving now, and Christmas decorations hanging with his arrival, aren't we taking away from the moment for everyone? Especially the kids?

Christmas is a celebration of the birth of Christ. For one, we got the date wrong, but to go along with some pagan holiday, it was moved. No shepherds were out in the fields in the middle of December watching over their flocks, not even in Israel, but the commercialization started even way back then. The "Church" decided it would be better to celebrate it with the other goings on, and thus, Christmas in December was born. It's been going downhill ever since.

It would not surprise me in the least to one day see Christmas decorations going up right after the Fourth of July. I'm really not kidding here. I'm guessing that they figure the more money we spend, the better the economy will get, so why not advertise earlier and earlier. I swear that will be the day I move off into the mountains somewhere and become one of those crazy survivalists. Probably not, but the thought has crossed my mind.

Merry Christmas everybody from Ms. Scrooge.

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