A few weeks ago, my roommate turned the radio on before he went to sleep. Some-times he puts on his iPod, so this was not very surprising. I woke up to Christmas music playing. I thought, “I didn’t know this playlist had Christmas music on it.” Then I heard a commercial and realized that we had been listening to the radio. This was before Halloween.

Now, I can’t watch any TV at all without seeing at least one December-holiday-themed commercial per break. I have nothing against holiday cheer. In fact, I am a big fan of the December holidays. Chanukah is awesome. I’d quote Adam Sandler here if the quote didn’t bring up memories of a certain terrible animated movie whose name I won’t mention because it makes me sad and angry.

I don’t know firsthand, but my Christian friends say that Christmas is pretty cool also, and I’m sure that someone out there likes Kwanzaa too.

I’m not trying to ruin any-one’s holidays here, but it is far too early for all of the holiday stuff. It’s not even Thanksgiving yet! They were playing jingles on the radio before Halloween! If you’re reading this article on the day it comes out, there are 39 days until Chanukah starts, 42 until Christmas and 43 until Kwanzaa. That’s an incredibly long amount of time.

More than the length of time, though, is the feeling of the sea-son. There hasn’t been any snow yet. There hasn’t even been a week straight of cold weather. The leaves are just starting to change colors and fall off the trees. That’s not the feeling of the holidays.

The holiday season is winter. Bare trees abound. No one can go outside without at least two layers of clothing on. It’s consistently cold enough to snow. You can go to sleep at night and dream of a Swamp covered in a fresh layer of powder, and
there’ll be a chance that that dream comes true overnight. Why would anyone roast chest-nuts over an open fire if it’s not cold enough to justify the flames?

Christmas is on Dec. 25 every year. Why is it, then, that Wal-Mart starts their “Carol of the Bells” commercial two months before that? “Carol of the Bells” is not an appropriate song to trick-or-treat to. It is not an appropriate song to celebrate amicable relations between refugees of religious persecution and people without a congenital resistance to smallpox. It is appropriate in late December.

This is all part of an underlying problem. The holiday season has shifted meaning. Thanksgiving isn’t about giving thanks for a good harvest anymore. It’s about stuffing yourself with turkey and then waking up early on Black Friday to go shop-ping for presents. Chanukah isn’t about remembering some very strong oil; it’s about eight nights of presents and dreidels and gelt. Kwanzaa is no longer about African heritage; instead it’s about being the butt of every joke every holiday season.

Do we really need to turn everything we hold dear into a commercial orgy of commercialism for its own sake? Does Wal-Mart need to remind everyone that the holidays are coming up? Does Target think we’ll forget?

What happened to respecting tradition?