Well,
it finally happened. For years we’ve been talking about how Christmas
starts earlier and earlier every year. You know you have, and
you’re just as sick of seeing Christmas trees up two weeks before
Halloween as I am.
But,
in a strange way, I bring you good news. We’ve finally reached
the breaking point. For you see, here it is 2004, and we’ve finally
hit upon the final straw… this year we can confirm that Christmas
is actually over before the 25th of December.
It
all began for me with an observation when I walked into the house
one day in mid-October and on the counter of my kitchen, I saw
that the holiday issues of some magazines had started coming out.
Ways to decorate… ways to bake… ways to select gifts. Some of
our subscriptions had arrived with the news, and there were others
in the stores. At the time, it triggered a few thoughts about
the claim of the holidays arriving earlier and earlier, and how
this might relate to the fall of society in general.
But
I didn’t worry about it. It was a thought that flew in, fluttered
about for a moment, and flow off.
Because...
None
of this should be surprising to us. We’ve been changing dates
for years in all sorts of ways. The new cars always used to come
out in September or so… carrying the model year designation for
a calendar date still four months away. And, at the risk of ruining
the early arrival of holidays topic as a pet peeve, I could understand
that.
Some
of ii is nothing more than marketing. Christmas and December are
a massive retail push, and when it comes to sales and dollars
often you try to extend what rings the registers and fills the
accounts.
I
can also follow magazines released in November with December’s
date. Most of the, if you’ll allow the phrase, shelf life was
actually accurately noted in these instances. The dates may seem
early, but they work over time. Plus, most of these magazines
need to be planned well in advance, which likely meant Christmas
recipes and decorating and articles and more being produced in
March and April in order to be finished for the issue.
But
then video games went out and started using the wrong years entirely
for the sporting titles. If you buy the 2005 edition of a baseball
game in two months, you’ll get last year’s game with the 2004
line-ups. Want the 2005 football games? They were out last July
and August. No shelf life dilemmas there, just stupid people in
marketing that can’t read a calendar.
But
then...
This
past weekend… the end of November… I found out that none of it
mattered. Christmas was over already.
That’s
when I saw the January issue of a magazine on the counter. No
mention of the holidays. Just great advice for the new year, delivered
to my home before any of the holidays they covered last edition
had even officially taken place.
We’ve
now started the holidays so early that they are over before they’ve
begun. (I don’t know if there’s any peace to be found in that.)
~ ~
~ ~ ~
In
the early days of the In My Backpack web site, I was
trying several different ways to present material.
My
journal entries were referred to as “A Momentary Lapse…” for
a period of time, which eventually transitioned to “Are you
chewing gum?” for a bit. Eventually, after a few restarts, modifications,
and relaunches, the Now Playing area took over.
One
of occasional segments—appearing perhaps ten times a year or
so—was called Random Thoughts, which I described as…
Too
long for “A Momentary Lapse…”… Not enough for a full article…
Need to get them off my “ideas to work on” list…
This
essay was originally created and presented as a Random Thoughts
entry. I’m bringing it back as a From the Backpack offering
because I’m curious about the content and the effort. But, worth
noting, it may still seem a bit incomplete, needing more development,
and may or may not have gone through some additional edits and
re-writes beyond my usual finds when searching the archives.