Take a Good Look at the Date

See that date stamp above? What does it say? November 17, 2006 right?

N-O-V-E-M-B-E-R.

Not D-E-C-ember.

Yes everyone knows Christmas is a commercial sham of a holiday that's become less about spending time with family and friends, and more about trying to out pace them in realms of baking, gifting, Kris Kringling and...tacky decoration!

The decorating, more than a month before the damn day, is absolutely out of hand. Last week already on a walk I noticed more than a handful of houses already decked out in a mish-mash of various Christmas lights, LED's and flood lights. Tonight I notice that the City of Waterloo already has their bloody wreaths up on the light posts uptown, and the lights on the trees lit up already.

November 17.

Sure, hang your lights and other decorations while the weather is good. By all means, I'm not asking people to go sliding off roofs. I can even take your tacky splatters of whatever was the brightest/most colourful/most likely-to-induce-seizure-flash-sequences in decorations for a week or two leading up to the 25th...of December. But is it really necessary to spend more than a 12th of the year plugging those things in?

"But the Christmas parade is tomorrow." you argue? That's fine. Again no need to have the kids huddled outside in weather any colder than necessary all running around with the flu and getting everyone else sick. The City can have its wreaths, I'll concede them that, but damnit, don't light them at the very least until December.

Maybe its high time the entire month of November become akin to Devil's Night before Hallowe'en, and let the kids loose on those endless strands of icicle lights. Sucks to be you if you went and hung them and lit them way too early, cause now you have to hope every other idiot in town hasn't bought them out at the local Canadian Tire, buy more, and hang them in the more frigid, snowy conditions of December.

Its time to relax on the aggrandizing of this shopping bonanza celebration.

Edit:
I suggest you do something more productive with your Christmas decoration money (via Rick Mercer)