The Online Reflector

Christmas is just days away, but most of us have likely been celebrating the holiday season since well before December. Some people like to protest the early onset of the Christmas season, but I wholeheartedly believe in it. Sure, Thanksgiving may get pushed to the side a little, but considering this holiday is now overshadowed by the mammoth marketing scam that is Black Friday, that’s perfectly fine with me.

Christmas has a certain vigor to it. For many people, the holiday season begins Nov. 1 and ends when we ring in the New Year.  Now, it doesn’t take a brain surgeon to count the days of the week, but that is a whopping 68 days of Christmas. What other holiday has almost an entire season dedicated to it?

I know what is on everyone’s mind: Christmas has shifted its celebration from the birth of Jesus Christ to gaudy decorations and boatloads of money spent on useless gifts.  The argument will forever persist—is Christmas simply commercialism gone wild? I won’t get into that, but I’ll agree with the fact that we Americans are absolutely obsessed with Christmas decorations. Unless you’re a hermit and have never set foot into a store in America during one of the 68 days of Christmas, you know exactly what I’m talking about.

I’ll be honest—sometimes these decorations are nearly heinous. I’ve seen displays that look like Santa Claus had a few too many to drink with his elves at the North Pole Saloon and yakked tinsel and peppermint all over the place.  But for some reason, I can’t get enough of it. I mean, they do say “the more the merrier,” don’t they? And after all, what would Christmas be without these glorious, overdone displays? A winter filled with yellow snow and wet pant legs—pretty dreary if you ask me.

For example, think about the over-the-top light shows popping up all over the country the minute the leftover turkey is put in the fridge on Thanksgiving. The neighbors may not be sleeping a wink for a month straight, but people from all over the area often drive by at night just to see some blinking strands of lights. A house just down the road from mine always has an extravagant display that promptly illuminates on Thanksgiving night. Guess who purposely drives by every year to see it? You guessed it—the Kopetski family.

This is what Christmas is all about: tradition. Almost everyone I know has some sort of Christmas tradition, whether it’s wacky, heartwarming or comical. Special pajamas, watching “A Christmas Story” with the family before bed,  having a special breakfast ready in the morning…the list goes on. One of my personal favorites is being the “ham tester” at my grandparents’ house before lunch on Christmas Day.

Whatever our special traditions may be, we reserve them solely for Christmas or the Christmas season. School is out, vacation time is used up and everyone is doped up on hot chocolate, baked goods and the smell of pine-scented candles… What is not to love?

For the Christmas haters out there, I get it. Feeling more Ebenezer Scrooge than Buddy the Elf? It’s understandable—maybe the commercialism of Christmas is clouding your perception of the holiday that you probably once loved. (Come on, what kid doesn’t love Christmas?) Just in case, take a look back at your childhood Christmas memories: parties on the last day of school, snowball fights in the back yard, leaving cookies out for Santa and carrots for his reindeer, or waking up to a white Christmas. The innocence of being a child during the month of December is something we all need to remember when feeling like the Grinch. After all, even his ice-cold heart grew three times its size on Christmas Day.