It's The Holiday Season

Now don't get huffy at me, but let's face it. Once Halloween is over, it's the Holiday season. The stores have cleared away the spooks and spiders, and the snow and evergreen begins to make it's appearance. Everyone bemoans over the fact that they forget about Thanksgiving, but what do you want to do? Walk into Target and buy a plastic pilgrim? Thanksgiving is the holiday that you celebrate at the supermarket, while freaking out over the coming tidal wave of family and expectations.

On the first of the month, I found myself out and about running errands. One department store I visited was already playing Christmas music, trees and glittery snowflakes up all over the place. With the Halloween paraphernalia all marked down to the lowest price. The only stores where you're not bonked over the head with Christmas, would be those food and kitchen specialty stores. They want you geeked up to cook a giant turkey dinner for the family, using their amazingly handy brand of kitchen tools.

Even if we publicly bemoan the lack of a gap between holidays, we're secretly already planning for the 25th. We're plotting what to put on lay-away for the kids, what to get our spouses, and how much medication we're gonna beg our doctors to give us. Nothing quite exclaims “Have a holly jolly Christmas” quite like being upped on Prozac while family bombards ya. “But dear, you're pouring vodka into the mashed potatoes” your mother says, while you just smile and keep yelling “eight maids a'milkin'!!!”

Sometimes this Holiday season starts on Halloween night, TV stations seem to feel it's OK to begin airing the ads for whatever amazing sales we can get out of this or that. It's a little disheartening to see an ad for a Christmas sale, while you hear “Monster Mash” playing throughout the house. One store actually does buck this trend, and that would be the upscale retail chain Nordstrom. I've been to Nordstrom just a few times, but when I was living in Nashville, I noticed after Halloween they had a tiny sign up. A sign that said “We like to celebrate one holiday at a time, we won't deck our halls till November 27th.” The idea of a store acknowledging Thanksgiving was downright refreshing, yet alone nice to not see nutcracker overload.

Now I know that for some, it's nice to be ready for Christmas before Thanksgiving rolls around. You want to make sure the offsprings have that wonder toy that they've lusted after all Fall. Thanksgiving coming before Christmas does offer that double whammy of expectations for two outlandish holiday feasts, and when you're in a panic over the turkey, the last thing you wanna think about is the Furby that your child wants (yet alone ponder who in the hell thought it was a good idea to bring those things back).

So where are you with the upcoming yuletide? Tired of the premature Santa Nation? Or are you happy to be ready to tackle it with the full brunt of your strengths? I'm just worried about eating and sleeping on the couch in a food coma, for either holiday.