O Holy Post

Now that everyone's in full Christmas mode, I feel semi-safe to pontificate on the subject of this next post. I ask you in advance to pardon the brevity today, as I worked from 8:30am to 4:00pm straight on a research paper that's due Monday. Got 9.75 pages done though... probably my most productive school day of my entire life.

Christmas music. Some hate it, I adore it. I enjoy it so much I actually start listening to Christmas music each season on November 1st. Now, I'm sure some of you Christmas-music-before-Thanksgiving-naysayers all just collectively gasped in disgust and astonishment, but hear me out. I don't NOT like Thanksgiving, and I don't believe my listening to Christmas music overshadows the holiday. I actually like Thanksgiving day better than Christmas day (not  because I enjoy gorging on food- though it's quite tasty I don't really eat any more than I would for any normal dinner, but because it's the one day of the year my ENTIRE family gets together and I get to see them all under one roof).

Christmas is all about the anticipation of the day, rather than the day itself. Let's face it- as we've gotten older, Christmas day kind of sucks. I don't know about you, but I don't really get any presents anymore. I get money. Not that I'm complaining- but the magic that resides in the question in every kid's head when they first come out of their Christmas Eve slumber- "I wonder what Santa brought me for Christmas?"- is no longer a part of it. Plus, all your friends are busy doing family stuff so there's no one to hang out with other than your family (which I'm not saying is a bad thing!). I'm just saying Christmas day is kind of boring... except of course for the Lakers v. Heat game... which I'm sure this year will be EPIC (I hate Lebron).

The 2 months leading up to Christmas though... that's a horse of a different color. Everyone seems a bit more jolly and cheerful. Christmas decorations slowly begin emerging the week prior to Thanksgiving (for those who just can't wait)... then come out in full force on Black Friday. The excitement of finding something perfect to give someone (I swear I'm not a corporate schmuck caught up in the holiday's commercialism... but I do enjoy finding something someone will really appreciate, no matter how random the gift or the recipient). The slight, relative nip in the air... for Californians that means around 60 degrees, for Bostonians- 20 degrees and the hope of snow. Baked goods galore. The inevitable guilt that follows, spurring long nightly runs complete with lit-up houses and Trans-Siberian Orchestra blasting from your iPod.

Trans-Siberian Orchestra blasting from your iPod. What was the point of this post again? Oh, yeah! Christmas music! All I'm saying is that I have 116+ songs on my "Canzoni di Natale" playlist (translation: "Christmas Songs" in Italiano), and I need a solid 2 months to enjoy them. I'm not asking for much, folks. I'm only asking for 1/6 of the year. I have nothing against Thanksgiving, Veterans Day, All-Saints Day, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa... or any other holiday that might fall between November 1st and December 25th. It just so happens that none of those holidays contain the sweet, jolly, harmonious holiday melodies of Bing Crosby, the Vince Guaraldi Trio, Celine Dion, Josh Groban, Burl Ives, The Carpenters, or Nat King Cole (to name a few).

Merry Christmas, ya filthy animal.