By The Way...

Thursday, November 22, 2007
12:03:00 PM EST
Hearing Nothing at the moment


First: Yes, I just wanted an excuse to post this picture again. Because I think it's a riot.

Second: Today is Thanksgiving, and tomorrow, Black Friday -- a day of massive sales and shopping craziness that pretty much officially inaugurates the holiday season. But as I'm sure most of you know, in the stores, Black Friday isn't the first time you see holiday stuff: It all starts going up on November 1, or as quickly as stores can pull down the Halloween decorations, in any event. If it weren't for the fact Halloween is in itself the second most profitable holiday here in the US, thus deserving of its own displays, I suspect all the Christmas and other holiday stuff would have pushed back square into September by now.

Which brings me to this question for you:

Weekend Assignment #191: When do you personally start celebrating the holiday season? Do you get into it at midnight of the Friday after Thanksgiving? Do you wait? Is Thanksgiving annoyingly in the way? Share your thoughts!

Extra Credit: Do you dream of a White Christmas (or Hanukkah, or Kwanzaa, or Winter Solstice, etc), just like the ones you used to know?

Here's my rule on the holidays: If it's not December, it's not the holiday season. Frankly, I think 31 days of Christmasy-New Yearsy stuff is quite enough, thank you very much. I enjoy it as much as the next guy but I'm not in such a rush for it that I don't want to, say, give a little dignity to end of end of November, and to take a little breath before rushing headlong into the holidays.

I think some of the reason I wait until December before getting into the holiday mood -- aside from having the OCD-like desire to have everything neatly compartmentalized, and a vague fatigue when it comes to holiday joy -- is that when I was a kid my mom let me and my sister have a candy cane a night for every night in December leading up to Christmas. And on Christmas day, who both got a huge candy cane, which of course we would try to devour before going to sleep on Christmas night. Do this long enough, and you sort of have the start of December as the point where your Holiday salivary glands start working, if you catch my drift.

So: December. Don't talk to me about the holidays before then, okay? Thanks.

Re: White Christmases: No, don't dream about them much; I grew up in Southern California, so for me 72 degrees is a lovely Christmas temperature. I understand others may disagree with me, but they're wrong. That said, I would be surprised and to be frank rather deeply alarmed if I got a 72-degree Christmas here in Ohio. A white Christmas around here would be fine.

You're up: Talk about the holiday season and when it starts for you. Write it up in blog or journal and come back here to leave a link!

And have a Happy Thanksgiving!



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This entry has 11 comments: (Add your own)

• #11 Comment from nicurnmama 
  11/25/07 10:30 PM | Permalink

  because i know you were wondering about the Big Top when you made this assignment, here is your answer.
  http://adventuresinjuggling.wordpress.com/2007/11/25/weekend-assignment-192-when-do-the-holidays-start/
  a belated happy thanksgiving to the Scalzis!
  laura
• #10 Comment from geekygirl602 
  11/24/07 9:37 PM | Permalink

  I tried not to be a Scrooge.  As a matter of fact, I didn't realize I was a Scrooge until I started this assignment.  It's interesting how writing can bring out the psychology about yourself you didn't want to know about.
  
  Anyway, I wrote it.  It is not pretty and not picturesque.  It's just me.
  
  
  http://journals.aol.com/geekygirl602/Geekygirl602/
• #9 Comment from ondinemonet 
  11/24/07 2:22 PM | Permalink

  Hi John :)
  
  My Weekend Assignment is all done. You can find in right here...
  
  http://ellipsissuddenlycarly.blogspot.com/2007/11/john-scalzis-weekend-assignment-192.html
• #8 Comment from lilybugsgrandma 
  11/24/07 11:08 AM | Permalink

  My weekend assignment is up! Come see at http://sandystyl.blogspot.com/
• #7 Comment from specialadyfink 
  11/23/07 11:21 AM | Permalink

  I have my entry for this assignment up
  ~connie~
  http://journals.aol.co.uk/specialadyfink/Anyway...../

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