Hold the Christmas specials until December!

December 1, 2004

Does anyone have Santa’s cell phone number? I really need to talk to him. Apparently, Christmas is now being celebrated in November, and I don’t want the big guy to miss out.

It’s bad enough that retailers start peddling Christmas merchandise at the end of October, but television networks have jumped on the bandwagon, too. Last week, an onslaught of Christmas specials and classic holiday movies flooded the television airwaves.

The Whos in Whoville already celebrated. Ditto for The Grinch, Mickey Mouse and Huey, Dewy and Louie. Tim Allen’s Santa Claus headed to the North Pole, and Jimmy Stewart relived his wonderful life. Even Kelsey Grammar, as Scrooge, got in on the action. He was flying through the air in a nightgown with the Ghost of Christmas Past singing in his ear.

Call me crazy, but Christmas is in DECEMBER. December 25 in fact. Is it too much to ask that the Christmas specials and holiday movies not air until after Thanksgiving?

Thanksgiving is the forgotten holiday. And I’m on a one-woman crusade to give it its due. There was barely a show on the tube to honor Thanksgiving. Oh sure, the Thanksgiving Day parades may call themselves that, but many of floats and musical skits are Christmas themed.

Don’t get me wrong. I love Christmas. The real one. Not the shameful commercialized event the holiday has evolved into.

And I’m a HUGE fan of the holiday movie. Miracle on 34th Street is my all-time favorite. (The Natalie Wood version.) But somehow watching it in November seems premature.

The consistent pressure to start the Christmas season earlier and earlier is out of control. Someone should inform the Wise Men, the Virgin Mary, Baby Jesus, Rudolph, and the whole lot of them that, apparently, December just isn’t soon enough anymore. Judging by the TV specials, Christmas now comes in November.

But I’m not taking the hint. So call me a Grinch, a bad banana with garlic in my soul. But I’m stockpiling all my holiday TV movies until late December, the real Christmas season.

Originally published 12/1/04 in The Exponent Telegram newspaper.

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