It's already here. I've heard commercials on the radio and seen them on TV. I've received flyers in the mail. I've seen festive yard and home decorations in the stores. I've even seen a house all decked out with lights. The jolly red icon of the season has already made an appearance at our local mall. Yes, the Christmas season is upon us!
Most people dread this early onslaught of the holiday season. I saw one person sadly shake his head as he observed, "Christmas starts right after Halloween these days." Gone are the days when Christmas started the day after Thanksgiving. It's just a marketing scam to extend the shopping season and thus increase the profits.
But our home welcomes the longer season. Casey and I used to break out the Christmas music before Thanksgiving, but we would hide the CDs from any visitors because it was such a taboo thing to do. Like wearing white shoes after Labor Day. But it's a whole new world now. We can listen to our music proudly and loudly. I could even unpack some of our decorations and buy and wrap gifts. I could read books about the Christmas story to Coulson. We are very excited about this new freedom to start celebrating the greatest holiday in November. Critics might feel that this early attention to Christmas robs Thanksgiving of its well deserved attention. I feel the opposite however. Thanksgiving is all about showing our gratitude to God for the good things He has given us. Joyfully celebrating Christ's birth is a great way to show our gratitude and the longer we celebrate, the better.
Of course we'll probably be so busy with kids and work and everything else that we'll forget to celebrate early.
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