It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

 

by Pa Rock

a.k.a. Ebenezer Curmudgeon

Yes, I know the big box stores have had their Christmas displays up since August, but I don't get out much, so their greed and avarice doesn't really get under my skin like it should.  When it comes to "the holidays," I'm old school.   Christmas comes after Thanksgiving, and all of the gifts need to be returned by New Year's Day -  as God intended.  I don't want to be worried about Christmas shopping while I am still mowing the yard, or finding Easter eggs hidden in artificial Christmas trees.

But nobody ever asks me - about anything - I can't imagine why.

I was driving into town this past Wednesday afternoon.   The sky was bright blue and the temperature in the low seventies.  I was heading to my cardiac rehab exercise session clad in shorts and a tee-shirt which was perfect attire for the nice fall weather.  The place where I exercise, the local hospital, is only about two miles from my house and it takes about ten minutes of relaxed driving to get there..  The trip Wednesday, was slower because the city had a pair of very large bucket trucks out blocking traffic on Porter Wagoner Boulevard so they could put up community's sad Christmas decorations, large white snowflakes, on the poles beneath the street lights.  

Installing the decorations is a necessary traffic nuisance that happens every year, and that is not my complaint.  What struck me as offensive was that the snowflakes were going up three weeks and a day before Thanksgiving.  But, whatever.  That evening, not long after dark, I happened to look out the window and notice that one of my neighbors had his shrubbery sparkling with Christmas lights!

I resisted the urge to rush outside and get the jump on the 4th of July by shooting off a few Fierce Tiger skyrockets, but I have decided to send my grandchildren valentines for Christmas.  Surely they will be in the stores by then!

Black Friday sales are already in full swing at many retailers.

I thought about closing with "Bah humbug," but that would amount to repeating myself!