I don’t know if you’ve been to any big-box retail stores lately, but I think we’ve officially entered “Hallothankmas” season.
You know, the consolidation of majorly commercialized and market holidays in the “-ber” months?
I’m talking about Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas – from October, November and December – the “-ber” months respectively.
Apparently, this is a growing trend online and I’m not sure if I can get on board with it either.
After all, if I start hearing Christmas music before Thanksgiving it’ll make my eye twitch and definitely urge me to wear headphones in public rather than suffer the same five songs on repeat for any longer than I need to.
I mean, I do enjoy being given the illusion of control over what
holidays I can celebrate and when it’s appropriate to switch out decorations.
Butt, I’ve got news for the general population – Halloween is my favorite holiday overall and I already integrated my fave décor into my regular home furnishings.
However, that doesn’t mean I’m not on the lookout for something new or unique that fits the rest of the vibes I’m looking for.
Just taking a quick glance through Walmart or any one of our local dollar tree storefronts you’ll see seasonal fall décor sharing shelf space with Fourth of July and back-to-school leftovers.
And don’t get me started with online retailers pushing the latest and greatest decorations for indoors or out!
I mean, they’ve seemingly made the overlap between Summerween and football season a miniscule thing.
Truthfully, I’m not sure if it’s an attempt to sell more or to try and beat out Trump’s tariff Ponzi scheme before importing anything becomes a bankrupt business model.
In case you missed out on my July 3 column, “Summerween” comes from the Disney Channel’s “Gravity Falls” season 1, episode 12 of the same name where Halloween takes place in the summer and features carved melons instead of jack-o’-lanterns and trick-or-treating.
But, I think this only further makes time feel like an illusion.
Sure, we universally accept that daylight hours are when the sun is in the sky above use versus nighttime with just stars and occasionally the moon.
History regards the Sumerians as the first civilization to develop timekeeping around 5,000 years ago and I don’t even think they could have been prepared for the rate at which time flies in the modern world.
Personally, it’s extra hard for me to stay in touch with the normal goings-on outside of my press deadlines.
I’m always thinking one week ahead by the time Monday night rolls around and it’s a struggle to plan things out in my personal life.
After all, we go to print first thing Tuesday morning and I’m already coordinating what events and where I need to be to get everything we need covered before the next Sunday.
And that’s not including office hours for work to write and edit everything up either!
At least I’m mostly looking forward to the drop in temperatures that usually come with the ‘Ber months, but, we’ll see how well that goes.
I’ve worn shorts on Christmas Day plenty of times in my life and don’t look forward to temperatures over 65 degrees that day – ever!