When I was very little, I accompanied my mother to a K-mart store and saw a Christmas tree decorated with witches and ghosts and pumpkins. I didn't understand then the clash of emotions I experienced, and I'm not so sure I did when I experienced it again at 40-something, this time at the Goodwill store in Standale, MI, though on this occasion I could at least take a picture and shake my head in weary wonder.
Just what possesses someone to manifest their irreverence in this way is beyond me. And although the Halloween/Christmas collision is especially jarring, it would be the same to me if you hung Valentine hearts on the tree, or 4th of July bunting.[1]
c0
[1]
I love Halloween almost as much as Christmas, and have since I was a kid. But I no more want to see Halloween injected into Christmas than vice versa. Just let me get through one holiday before I start the next one, okay?
I don't suppose anyone's listening, at least no one that can change any of this. Retailers now set their Christmas and Halloween displays nearly simultaneously. As someone I respect a great deal recently put it, we're going to be planning Christmas so far out we'll eventually lap ourselves.
Then what? Then the holidays become like so much chocolate and vanilla and strawberry ice cream, neither one nor another, just a swirl of colors and mingling flavors.
Happy Neapolidays.
c0
Started: 2012-09-29
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