It's Beginning To Look A Nice Tasteful Amount Like Christmas

This week I was in a mall, and as is now expected in late November, Christmas is in full swing. Halloween is gone, and some people respectfully hold back until after Remembrance day. In the U.S. they still have Thanksgiving, and of course the second most important date on the capitalist calendar, Black Friday. But for us, there's no holding back on the Christmas decorations.

The Santa enclosure was up, though it wasn't inhabited yet. I guess the Santas have a strong union if they're not forced onto the job until later. Or perhaps it's the amount of exposure to screaming kids, there's probably some sort of health regulations about that. So for now, there's just a strange Christmas labyrinth ending at an empty chair.

Of course, I'm not a fan of starting Christmas as early as possible. I'm not against Christmas, I just find that a month is more than enough of it for me. So I was surprised when I found that I wasn't annoyed at all the early signs of the holiday season. For once, I wasn't feeling like I was trying to survive an unregulated psychological experiment. It was actually kind of enjoyable.

I realized why when I was looking at some felt snowmen and it suddenly hit me how unusual it was to be seeing Christmas decorations without the accompanying music. Yes, the mall was still playing its usual non-threatening oldish pop soundtrack. Some might find it culturally confusing to be walking among random sprigs of holly to the sound of lesser Rick Astley tracks, but it came across as much less pushy to me.

Like I say, I don't mind Christmas, I just find it difficult to take such a long, uninterrupted period of not being able to get away from it. But this weakened, partial Christmas allowed me to genuinely enjoy it. To me, this is how a sane society would celebrate its biggest holiday: lots of celebration, but without losing sight of everything else in existence.

So I'm going to try to enjoy Christmas during this brief, early period. All too soon it will strengthen into a category-5 holiday, and I'll have to retreat into my curmudgeonliness. But for now, Merry Mid-November.