...and sound like it too.

On Friday afternoon, just a scant two weeks before Thanksgiving, I was surfing radio stations when I found an appealing melody. I sat at a stop light and listened for a few seconds until I realized that the song was "Here Comes Santa Claus".

Already. Christmas music on the radio. And it wasn't a fluke - a different station was playing some Karen Carpenter Christmas song on Saturday. Is it just me, or did they start the Christmas carols a mite bit too early this year? Have I become oversensitive to the commercialism of Christmas?

Me, who doesn't start buying presents until at least a week after Halloween, and won't even think about putting up the Christmas tree until the day after Thanksgiving. Every holiday has its place and time, and Christmas' isn't here yet.

Yet there it is all over the stores since the summer, and the Christmas music is already playing on local radio stations. It seems to get earlier and earlier every year, and there's probably a direct correlation to Christmas being pushed on us earlier and the commercial need to be in the black as soon as possible for retail outlets.

'Tis a damn shame. Really. Because Christmas isn't about the presents, and it's not about the music. It's about the mythology and spirituality surrounding the birth of Christ (who was not born in December, according to some researchers because of the stars in the sky, etc). It's about the coming of a child who would die for all of mankind. It is about family, about love. It is most definitely not about music or shopping.

Yet, there is the shopping to be done. And the music is already playing. And it's too early already, since there is still a turkey to be cooked and thanks to be given. *sigh*

I think I have to give up folks, don't I? Christmas will march on until it becomes a year round activity, won't it? Maybe then people will remember and realize that we don't need it shoved down our throats so early in the year.