“It’s the first season of Lost on DVD.”
“That’s the meaning of Christmas?”
“No, it’s a metaphor. It represents lack of payoff.”
-Abed’s Uncontrollable Christmas
Well that didn’t take long. We haven’t even cracked the month of December and Christmas has already infiltrated the pages of the Other Press, which is actually the topic behind my Lettitor for this week.
Admittedly, I’m an enormous fan of the holidays. The corpse of Halloween was still warm when I had already moved on to thinking about the pending Christmas season. I’m not a religious fella and I’m not even that big on accumulating material wealth. I just love the holiday because of the festive spirit that comes with it. I find everyone’s smiles are just a touch brighter, that egg and nog combination that everyone hates to love makes its annual resurgence, and I can finally watch A Muppet’s Christmas Carol without getting the stink-eye. I even took the initiative and bought six stockings to hang in the Other Press office, one for each of your favourite sections in the newspaper. Some of our staff appreciated my holiday zeal, but the more common response was a skeptical “Isn’t it a bit early for Christmas stuff?”
Quite simply, no.
Let’s look at the main reasons why people are anti-premature Christmas celebration. Probably the most frequent reason I encounter is that a head start on the holiday means oversaturation is inevitable. Christmas music is overplayed before we even get to touch the chocolate in our advent calendars; holiday-centric ads pop up like coffee shops on Main Street. I can’t say I’ve ever been afflicted with this sick-of-the-holidays-before-they-even-start attitude because I do my best to avoid these cesspools. Don’t go to the mall as frequently as you do (they’re holiday hotspots), watch less television (or choose devices without commercials), and maybe go into the coming months without the expectation that you’re going to be sick of Christmas after a week. Make a few of these shifts and maybe you can avoid being the Grinch that no one wants to invite to their holiday fiesta.
Another reason why people seem to be anti-Christmas in November is because of Remembrance Day, a holiday dedicated to remembering the sacrifices made by soldiers to ensure our country’s freedom. Remembrance Day has always been an interesting concept for me because while some people honour it rightfully, others see it as simply a day off. The reality here is that Remembrance Day isn’t of commercial interest for businesses. The Christmas season is the busiest time of the year for retail; being respectful doesn’t equate to being profitable. This isn’t an excuse, but I’m just stating the facts. Superstore isn’t going to have a sale for Remembrance Day but the first round of Christmas fruitcake—no matter how gross, I might add—will definitely have interested parties. Until businesses find a way to make a profit from Remembrance Day, which they absolutely shouldn’t because that would be soulless and insensitive, they’re going to skip over it and dive into Christmas.
Neither of these reasons are enough for me to stop and reconsider my festive spirit coming early every year. I’ll more than likely be decorating my apartment with Christmas décor in the coming week, I’ve started looking into potential playlist music for the season, and I’ve already started some of my shopping too—by that, I mean I bought a subscription to Modern Cat magazine for a gag gift. People like Christmas, and complaining about the holiday won’t make them any less interested in celebrating it.
So it goes,
Jacey Gibb
Editor-in-chief
