Today is December 30th. And there is a major radio station nearby that is still playing wall to wall Christmas music. My supervisor told me that they don't stop until New Year's Day.
At first I thought that was a little overkill. Something that I touched upon in a post from last year. I still believe that starting up the Christmas season earlier and earlier makes the entire year go by much too fast.
But while listening to the music while dining out last night (I still think that "Simply Having a Wonderful Christmas Time" by Paul McCartney sounds too much like the theme from A Clockwork Orange), it gradually dawned on me: that letting the songs play on after Christmas Day, is truly honoring the holiday and everything about it.
And the more I ponder it, the more I like it. There is something just very right about letting Christmas run its course. It shouldn't come to an abrupt halting stop on Christmas Night, take down the ornaments until next year. Christmas Day should be the centerpiece of something larger. It's better to have that day, and then enjoy the rest at a nice, easy pace. Letting it wind down in peace, instead of making the big shopping to-do on the day after Christmas.
I don't know if playing Christmas music is something that should carry on through the full Twelve Days of Christmas, but it could still lead up to New Year's Day. And when you think about it, that brings us gentiles on equal footing in comparison to our Jewish brethren and their eight days of Hanukah!
Maybe in years to come we will come to appreciate Christmas as but the most significant of an entire period of joy and celebration. It is certainly something that I will be mindful of and endeavoring to honor. And hey, it gives all the more compelling reason to keep watching National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation after the presents have been unwrapped.
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