It's Beginning...

Several years ago, we spent a month in Bolivia visiting our youngest daughter Dawn and her husband Todd who were then working for MCC (Mennonite Central Committee) in Santa Cruz. We were there over the month of December. You would not have known Christmas was coming by anything in the stores or the market until Christmas week. Then a couple of days before the day, all of a sudden there were decorations and nativity scenes.

It's not that way in the United States anymore. It's not even Thanksgiving yet and the television is showing ads for Christmas sales. There are Christmas decorations up in the malls and stores. Facebook is already full of cartoons and pictures of Christmas. People are already complaining because someone said "Happy Holidays!" to them instead of "Merry Christmas!"

For many families, it was part of the Thanksgiving weekend tradition to put up the outdoor lights and decorations. But many houses are already lit up. And there were several comments on Facebook tonight about how excited people were about having their Christmas trees up! I suppose part of that may be the increasing use of artificial trees -- when you just pull it out of the box and set it up, there is no worry about the tree drying out too soon.

We went over to the Red Rock Buffet at the Fort McDowell Casino tonight for one of their weekly snow crab feasts. Since we were there two weeks ago, holiday decorations and trees are up all over. They're still advertising their Thanksgiving Buffet, but everything else is Christmas themed.

I understand that part of the reason for the rush to promote Christmas -- especially the sales -- has to do with the fact that this year November has five Thursdays. That means that Thanksgiving is later then usual (the last Thursday in November). Therefore, there are not as many shopping days between Thanksgiving and Christmas as there generally are.

Maybe it's part of getting older. My beloved mother-in-law always said that time flew by faster and faster the older she got. That's the way I feel. It seems like holidays come around so fast anymore, but I'd still like to enjoy each one before the next one starts...