The Skeeter Daddle Diaries

Christmas on the equatorial South End doesn’t arrive on Black Friday, one hour after Turkey Day is still undigested, the way it does the rest of Jingle Bell America. The urge to drive 40 miles to the nearest mall with a maxxed out credit card doesn’t compel us to hurry up the holiday that will only push us one step closer to bankruptcy trying to buy the kids enough presents to hide the water basin under the tree.
Oh sure, it’s swell to say every year that the holiday is really about the Spirit of Giving, that the True Meaning is sharing and love and blah blah blah. But for a full month the REAL meaning blasts across the airwaves, piles in drifts of glossy sale ads, whistles down the blacktop in a high decibel muzak howl fever-pitched to buy buy buy some more….
Nothing new here. Nothing we haven’t heard every year of our lives. Too much commercialism. Too much emphasis on materialism. Too much tinsel, too little joy? Plug in the Blu-Ray re-released hi-definition “It’s A Wonderful Life” and watch it for the 50th time, only $29.95 on Amazon or run down to Wal-Mart at midnight on Thanksgiving with White Christmas spewing over the loudspeaker in a synthesized cadence determined by a shopper survey study group to enhance purchasing.
Naw, you can have it. Down here we’re gonna hang the nettle wreaths the day before Santa sets sail, string a few festive lights (that won’t stay up all year) and maybe invite a few neighbors in for a Yuletide nog spiked with something savory. We won’t give too many gifts, you can bet your stockings hung with care, not in these hard economic times, but we’ll help fill the food bank carts for those who need help this season way more than us.
Like always, we’ll drink a toast. To another year with our loved ones. To Peace on earth. To good will toward men. And women too. We probably won’t watch “It’s A Wonderful Life”, we’ll just try to live it. And hey, all you Cyber Monday Shoppers — A Merry Christmas to You, Too! Just not 365 days of the year, okay?

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This entry was posted on Friday, December 22nd, 2017 at 4:16 pm and is filed under rantings and ravings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.