Libertarian Librarian

Don't miss this Sunday's HUGE, TREMENDOUS, NEVER BEFORE SEEN NOR DUPLICATED MOTHER'S DAY EXTRAVAGANZA! Yes, folks, it's already October, so it's time to start thinking about the wonderful woman that gave you life and buy her lots of useless crap she doesn't need! Affirm your love for your mother the old fashioned way-- with diamonds, pearls or other earthly baubles that are far easier to acquire than, say, making a card, or visiting her, or taking her out for a nice dinner. But HURRY! This event will NOT be repeated for at least a few weeks, and REMEMBER it is only a little over half a year until Mother's Day!

Sigh. What brought that on, you ask? Driving to my pool league last night I noted several houses decked out in Christmas lights. Seriously. Quite a few had Halloween decorations up as well, but last I checked, Santa and reindeer were not part of the Halloween lineup. Good grief.

Now, I am not a knee jerk, reflexive hater of Wal-Mart. I believe strongly in the free market, and am opposed to tariffs and other artificial barriers to trade. But honestly-- can't we wait until Halloween is over before we begin marketing and displaying Christmas decorations? I love Christmas lights-- tremendous tradition. They look great in snow, and they bring some brightness to the long nights of winter. A little soul pick me up before the dreary, cold nights of January and February. Lovely.

But October 13th? Lets go back to Psalms, or at least to the Byrds, and to everything let there be a SEASON. Christmas is not a three month long celebration. But then, it's not Christmas any more, is it? It's the bloody "holidays." Hah-- they are all part and parcel of one another. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas... just a big long string of "holidays." All pretty much the same, eh? Dress up for one, eat turkey for the next, give and get presents for the final one. Nice system.

Except that they aren't, nor should they be, part and parcel of one big holiday season. This blurring and blending makes each and every one less special, draws away from the actual meaning of the events and makes it all a big, bloated marketing extravaganza. Quite frankly, it's disappointing and vaguely repulsive.

Even my KIDS don't like it. Kids love all three holidays-- but each is supposed to be special and unique, not a blurred together mishmash. The fact that Thanksgiving follows closely on the heels of Halloween and then Christmas soon after that is great because once you get done being excited about Halloween, you can start getting excited about Thanksgiving. All as a warm up to getting excited about Christmas. But I think it is nearly impossible, even for children, to stay excited about all of them for three friggin' MONTHS.

We were at Menards (home improvement store for those of you not in the midwest) the other day, and Nicole asked me why the Christmas decoration were out already. I told her I wasn't sure, it seemed a little early, didn't it? She whole heartedly agreed. Both she and Jacob felt that it was extremely silly to have Christmas stuff out before Halloween is over. Kids aren't stupid-- inexperienced, naive, and malleable, but not stupid (well, mine aren't-- I'm willing to concede that many other people's kids are remarkably stupid). I know that having Christmas decorations up in October is wrong because of my past experiences-- this was not the way it was when I was a kid waaaaaaaaay back in the '70s. My kids know it's wrong just because they know it's wrong.

It's stupid. It cheapens all of the holdidays, and Halloween and Thanksgiving weren't that rich to begin with, while Christmas has been cheapened enough already, thank you very much. Above and beyond the irony of this weird DNA holiday splicing of a pagan celebration with a secular, state originated holiday with the second holiest event of the Christian religion.

Ye gods, even if we can't agree on whether cloning is right or wrong, can't we all at least agree that THAT monstrosity is wrong and should cease to be? Where's the ACLU bemoaning the intrusion of Christmas decorations into a federal holiday? Church and state and all that claptrap. Where are the Christian fundamentalists bemoaning the appearance of Christmas decorations next to witches, black cats and Frankenstein's monster? This is one that we can all agree on! Except maybe the marketers-- but we can throw them overboard with the lawyers and politicians as far as I'm concerned.

So, here's what I'm doing: I will not buy Christmas decorations from a store that displays them before Halloween. More, I will inform someone at the store of my decision and reasons for it. Further, when possible I will email the corporate offices of the company in question, again informing them of my decision and reason for it.

If just I do that, no one will care. Which is why I'm posting this here-- I hereby implore all three of you, my intrepid readers, to join me in this cause and to likewise boycott retailers that diminish the importance of our holidays. And, more importantly, to tell them you are boycotting them and why.

Who's with me!

. . . . .

Well, I'm doing it anyway.