Holiday Seasons: Then and Now

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October 30th, 2008 by Kelson. Posted in Annoyances and tagged for christmas, holidays

When I was a kid, I remember the last few months of the year broke down like this:

Back to School in early-to-mid September
Halloween for the second half of October
Thanksgiving for the second half of November
Christmas in December
New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day

These days it seems more like this:

Back to school in August (July, really — as soon as the Independence Day merchandise goes on clearance.)
Some weird mix of Oktoberfest, Halloween, and Thanksgiving as “Autumn” or “Harvest” or some such thing covering all of September and October, resolving into Halloween specifically for the last week.
Christmas from November through December, with a short break for Thanksgiving
New Year’s

Everything’s crept earlier. There aren’t any breaks between seasons. And Christmas has swallowed up Thanksgiving as if it were merely an appetizer for the main meal.

Seriously… can’t we let Halloween be Halloween? And let Thanksgiving be Thanksgiving? And let Christmas be something special instead of taking up 1/6 of the year?

When Christmas starts showing up before Thanksgiving — never mind before Halloween! — I always find myself thinking of the story about the little girl who wished it would be Christmas Every Day, and found out why that wasn’t so appealing after all.