Happy Sigh

[filkertom]

I like the holidays, I really do. But I've gotta be ready for 'em. And, as we all know, they've been encroaching on more and more of the year, often quite offensively. A few years ago my local KMart had their Christmas displays and muzak playing in mid-August. (I complained to the manager, and they actually reined it in the following year, and were really good about keeping it unobtrusive until at least the week before Halloween this year.)

But there are a few signs I look for. Tacky, I know, but here they are.

Today I got some Keebler Almond Crescent cookies and a box of Christmas Crunch.

It's Christmastime.

So, when will it officially be the holidays for you, if it isn't already?

Comments

[atalantapendrag.livejournal.com]

Don't really like the holidays, but my yearly trip or two to Fiesta for all the imported Christmas goodies is always cheering.

[trdsf.livejournal.com]

I make a point of deliberately tuning out (or making snarky comments regarding) Xmas displays before Thanksgiving. I definitely don't get into the swing of it until early to mid December. The week before Xmas, I turn into Ebenezer Scrooge, but as soon as I get to my folks' house in Toledo on Xmas Eve, I'm good to go. :)

[wwetuesday.livejournal.com]

It's snow for me. As soon as the first snowfall hits, it's Christmas time for me. I try not express it until December starts, though. Then I go all out. Tree, lights, Christmas music playing in my place, the works.

[video-savant.livejournal.com]

Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. I'll be watching the "Special News Reports" from the local TV channels, alerting the viewing public to traffic conditions around all of the local malls.

I did the grocery shopping for the week today, so I won't have to leave the house from Thursday evening until Monday morning. I shall be maniacally laughing at those who venture forth. (I do 90% of my holiday shopping on line now)

Am I antisocial? Li'l bit. But I hate standing in lines even more.

[scifantasy.livejournal.com]

Maybe it's just me, but the holidays don't start until the first day I light the candles...everything else is trappings.

[fraggedone.livejournal.com]

Chalk another one up for "Day After Thanksgiving". (sounds like a good movie title... Ooo! a mockumentary!) Don't even mention snow till then.

[darthparadox.livejournal.com]

I've started drinking the local cafes' Peppermint Mocha offerings and the like, but it won't really be Christmastime for me until I've brought home the first eggnog of the season.

Which I refuse to do until after Thanksgiving.

The other big signal for me is receiving Christmas lists from my little siblings (and to a lesser extent, the rest of the family).

And I see I need to put my santa-hatted icon back on LJ. This one will do for now, though.

[sunfell.livejournal.com]

Eggnog! That's the real seasonal marker. I brought my first carton home a wee bit early this year- it was on sale, so I couldn't resist.

But I have a recipe for homemade eggnog that I'll make for our Christmas potluck for the local SF group I belong to- it was a hit last year. Especially the Tullamore Dew mixed in...

:-)

[kakita-shisumo.livejournal.com]

You mean you guys don't have eggnog at Thanksgiving?

Weird...

[kightp.livejournal.com]

On December 4. The day after my birthday.

(As one of those December babies who got a lot of the "Oh, we'll just combine your birthday and Christmas" stuff when I was a kid, I've insisted on this since becoming an adult...)

[darthparadox.livejournal.com]

Good move.

I know three people with birthdays on either the 24th or the 26th. One of them is turning 13 this year, and she's been celebrating half-birthdays instead of birthdays for as long as I can remember.

[selenesue.livejournal.com]

I feel your pain, truly.

December 15 baby here, most years it's Hanukkah as well. I think I may just skip the birthday this year. I'll claim to be 38 for as long as I can get away with it anyway -- if I say 39, everyone will know I'm lying. [grin]

[skipjim.livejournal.com]

For me it's any time after about Noon on Thanksgiving. The Santa hat comes out and remains my outdoor wear from 11/25 - 12/26. Sure some people might refer to me as a Giant Demented Elf but what do I care what my twin brother thinks? It's been worth it ever since the first time I was wearing it a little kid stared at me all through Meijers ;-).

Christmas Music however should not be played any time before Thanksgiving upon pain of death....(one Grand Rapids area radio station has already started playing Christmas Music, may their transmitter burn down).

I'm a "Ringing-sleighbells-in-the-hallway-outside-my-daughter's-(and this year my son's too)-room-Christmas-Eve-right-after-reading-"Twas the Night before Christmas"-kind-of-guy...I can't be blamed for this though, my parents used to do it to my brother and sister and I. Only took us twenty years and two Grandkids (spending Christmas Eve at my parent's house) to convince them to finally admit it.

Rosh Hashanah

[randwolf.livejournal.com]

was on 1-2 Tishri, and Yom Kippur was on 10 Tishri. Which is to say 4-5 October and 13 October. :-)

May you be inscribed in the Book of Life for the coming year. (Though more precisely one says that before Yom Kippur, the book, it is said,having been sealed then.)

(And no, I'm not a particularly observant Jew, but I'm definitely not a christian, either.)

[nimuejohn.livejournal.com]

Lumenaria Night at the Desert Botanical Garden usually gets me into the Solstice mood. The candlelit paths, hot cider, the music and the storytellers...

[admnaismith.livejournal.com]

To me, it ain't Christmas season until December 1. Any mention of it before Thanksgiving refers to Xma$$$, which is a different holiday entirely, and not recognized in my religion.

This year, nicely enough, Xma$$$ appears not to have been celebrated outside of your LJ, since it's flown completely under my radar. Possible side effect of being a new parent, a new sole proprietor of my business, and being in mourning, all at once.

[barbara-the-w.livejournal.com]

First carton 'o eggnog.

[jslove.livejournal.com]

I brought my first carton of eggnog home a couple weeks ago. For me, eggnog is not particularly a holiday thing. My grandmother used it as part of her "floating island" desert (an irregular meringue floating in eggnog), and as far as I can recall, that might be served on any visit, not just the ones around Christmas.

I stop resenting Christmas carols the day after Thanksgiving. Before then, they are too damn early. Before Halloween, doubly so.

Some years, I never get into the Christmas spirit at all. I think what does it for me is going caroling. Some years, that doesn't happen. One year, we just went to a midnight mass on Christmas eve, because we heard that the choir at that church (in our town) was very good, and it was a complete dud. Very disappointing.

I'm an agnostic, and persis was raised Unitarian, so the religious significance of the holiday is somewhat attenuated, but I sang for eight years in an Episcopal choir, so I know the music and its context.

On the other hand, I have a daughter who will be ten years old on December 23rd. This has several consequences.

If I don't get into the Christmas spirit, I have to fake it. Just call me Ebenezer.

Christmas begins at our house on December 1, the first day of Advent (and persis's father's birthday). persis gets an Advent calendar every year and uses it to count down to Christmas day. It's a teaching tool. This may continue until Epiphany, or January 6th, the twelfth day, anyway.

My father was born December 26th, Boxing Day, and so I was familiar with the one present for two occasions thing from early childhood. So for our daughter, we instead throw her an antipodal half-birthday party on June 23rd. It's about as far away from Christmas as you can get. Her friends have not all left for summer vacation yet; it's right about when school lets out for the summer.

[msminlr.livejournal.com]

Wee Talis's school lets out on JUNE 23RD??!!
Are they on trimesters?
Sharon GRADUATES on May 21!

[jslove.livejournal.com]

Technically, it's not wee Talis's school any more. We're disgusted with them, so we are home-schooling her. We're still affected by public school schedules, since her local friends mostly attend them. (She is getting not so wee any more. She'll be ten this year, and has less than six inches to go to pass big Talis. My prediction is 5' 2", but we'll see. I understand there is a pool, though for when, not by how much.)

I was fortunate to go to private schools, which did indeed let out at the end of May (my boarding school used trimesters), as did my college (semesters plus a separate January session, so fall semester could end before Christmas break). The Massachusetts public schools have a (mandated) 180-day school year. Thus, they spend an extra month in classes, once you factor in the holidays, vacations, teacher professional days, and of course weekends. Snow days are made up by extending the school year. There is pressure to start before Labor Day (not so good for WorldCon attendance). Other states in this region have similar school calendars.

[shikyrie.livejournal.com]

hrmmm... well, as soon as i get some semblance of a tree up (which was yesterday, as I bought a little 3' lighted tree at wallyworld and wanted to see how it looked in my room)

[lapislaz.livejournal.com]

For me Christmas starts in the dealer's room at LosCon, where I do a great deal of my Christmas shopping.

[ladysmith.livejournal.com]

Saturday at Midnight, when we sing the Hallelujah Chorus around the pool at Darkover.

That ROCKS!

[catlin.livejournal.com]

Before Halloween, the country radio had christmas music one day, all night. It was awful. There should be no christmas music til Thanksgiving night at least!

[ixias.livejournal.com]

Day after Thanksgiving. Christmas music before then irritates me, too!

[ash-blackwell.livejournal.com]

I work retail so Xma$$ as admnaismith so aptly calls it starts usually around late August when we start geting the first pallet's worth of "Trim A Tree" boxes in. Thankfully, Target has been very good about only putting out Xmas lights before Halloween.

This year I have been trapped in the Xma$$ dept, so I have been tortured with snippits of Christmas carols from the music display since 6 Nov. As a Pagan living with a Catholic re;ation we have come to a very comfortable compromise with the decorations but I keep with her family's tradition of Thankgiving day for putting up Christmas and Yule decorations.

[arcane-k.livejournal.com]

Every Christmas, I'm either sick or in labour.

Aiming for Christmas baby number 2 this year.

[arensb.livejournal.com]

So, when will it officially be the holidays for you, if it isn't already?

Oct. 28-31 (roughly) is Halloween. Thanksgiving weekend is Thanksgiving. The Christmas spirit starts about a week and a half to two weeks before Christmas, coasts through New Year's day, then settles down to a mild simmer until whenever I take down the tree, usually some time in the second half of January.

[sylverwolfe.livejournal.com]

my store started playing the holiday tunes two days after halloween. i'm grateful for their discretion; when i worked at books-a-million, they started it in october. i actually dug out my own holiday music collection two weeks ago, when the store system started playing some trans-siberian orchestra. TSO's three christmas albums are ones i can listen to all year 'round for the most part, because they're beautifully done. if you haven't heard them, i highly recommend you start with "christmas eve and other stories." their sound is like mannheim steamroller meets metallica meets queen. much joy.

[arensb.livejournal.com]

Vaguely-related question: since all my music is in the form of MP3s, I have a Christmas playlist that I can just set on shuffle and play throughout winter. This list is somewhat eclectic, including traditional winter/Christmas songs, rock and new wave covers of same, Tom Lehrer's I'm Spending Hannukah in Santa Monica, Spinal Tap's Christmas With the Devil, and others.

My question is, should I include the Dead Kennedys' Holiday in Cambodia?

[selenesue.livejournal.com]

Ouch. Well I suppose it goes with CHRISTMAS WITH THE DEVIL. I guess it all depends on who else is listening besides yourself.

I'm putting Stan Freberg's "Green Christmas" and "Christmas Dragnet" into regular iPod rotation. [grin]

[arensb.livejournal.com]

I suppose it goes with CHRISTMAS WITH THE DEVIL.

Maybe. It also sorta goes with Navidades radioactivas, a Spanish punk Christmas album that I listen to every year.

Other notable entries on the Christmas playlist include:

• A Christmas Carol by Tom Lehrer
  
• Shouldn't Have Given Him A Gun for Christmas by Wall of Voodoo
  
• Winter Wonderland covered by the Cocteau Twins, with the Enya filter cranked up to eleven.
  
• Squirrel Nut Zippers' Christmas Caravan album, because they manage to make Christmas sound happy but not syrupy.
  
• Hey Frickin' Nonny and O Yog Sothoth by some filker you've never heard of.
  

(PS: I was playing Holiday in Cambodia while writing this, and discovered that my cat doesn't like me chanting "Pol... Pot! Pol... Pot!" at him. You learn something new every day.)

Happy Chrismahannukwanzaakah?

[sciffy-circo.livejournal.com]

Yep, I've got Dr. Demento's Xmas Album, but I've had to add other things to the list. How about Luke Ski's "Fanboy Christmas", or The Arrogant Worms, "Santa's Coming and He's Gonna Kick Your Ass!"

I've had an Egg Nog shake at Steak & Shake already. I have no idea when they started with holiday stuff, but I think it was right after they retired the Halloween shakes.

I have a birthday on October 14. When I see Xmas stuff before that, IT'S TOO FREAKING EARLY!!! What, I know Lloyd's is going for some sort of record, having the earliest displays up on October 1. Jeez...

Okay, I know Xmas is big in America, and so is Hannukah, and Kwanzaa, but there's other holidays and religions too! Let's promote those! Better yet, let's promote the made up ones! Or make up a new one!

Heh, maybe I should just resort to penguin tossing, or Elf Bowling games...

Re: Happy Chrismahannukwanzaakah?

[arensb.livejournal.com]

Or, for the curmudgeons:

[msminlr.livejournal.com]

The Solstitial Eating Season runs from Thanksgiving through New Years.

[hms42]

Varies, but a staple is the start of the family birthdays that start in about a week and a half. I have a lot of them between mid dec and mid january (with a block within 6 days of each other in January and an aniversary tossed in too.)

That reminds me, I still need to get out shopping for a holiday gift for a few people... Tom - Will your CD be back in time to request this year?

Harold

[ldwheeler.livejournal.com]

When our local Wegmans put Christmas tree displays in the entrance forum in mid-September, they actually put up a sign noting that they made holiday items available early for the benefit of their valued customers who like to get their shopping done early.

So it's All Because They Love Us.

(By that logic, they could start in February.)

[ldwheeler.livejournal.com]

Forgot to answer the question: It varies, but it doesn't start until past Thanksgiving for me -- it pretty much has to be December to "feel" like Christmas. I wasn't raised in a tradition that regularly observed Advent, so it's left very much an arbitrary thing for me. (Of course, I'm writing a Christmas-centered novel, so when I'm in the thick of it, July seems like Christmas.)

But I consider the Christmas season as lasting until Jan. 6 -- I give it the full twelve days, absent the lords a-leaping and so forth. (Y'know, I think one lord a-leaping would be Quite Enough, thank you.)

Day after thanksgiving

[purplemoonwoman.livejournal.com]

I do not hum Christmas tunes. I do not admire pretty, pretty christmas ornaments. I do not watch Christmas shows. I do NO CHRISTMAS THING AT ALL until after Thanksgiving is over.

Otherwise, I really feel like it gets ruined.

Katrina

[sarekofvulcan.livejournal.com]

Christmastime starts after the first time I play Nat King Cole's version of Mel Torme's The Christmas Song. Without that, it's Just Not Christmas. :-)

[jmthane.livejournal.com]

Christmas season doesn't begin until after Thanksgiving. Me being a good Pagan, I've gotten really annoyed over the past few years when the Xma$$$ stuff hits the shelves before Hallowe'en! That's absolutely frakking ridiculous.

A few years back, Minstrosity played at None of the Above Coffeehouse for the Christmas show as one of eight bands (this was standard - NOTA is no more, alas). Given our beliefs, we performed "The Marvellous Toy", Greg Lake's "I Believe in Father Christmas", and I forget the third one, but it was definitely not your usual Christmas fare. The crowd loved it all. :-)

[dr-zrfq.livejournal.com]

I'm assuming you mean the Winter-Solstice-Related-Holiday(s) Of One's Choice here...

My family always associated eggnog with Thanksgiving as well, so eggnog is allowed anytime after Veterans' Day.

Winter-Holiday displays in the stores are unacceptable until Thanksgiving Week. Not that my opinion seems to matter in the slightest, psigh.

Holiday music is allowed starting on 1 December. The lights (what few we have) go up on 13 December (Santa Lucia's Day), though some years we've done it on the 6th (St Nick's Day). The season continues until 8 January (or through the last SCA Twelfth Night event we go to, whichever comes later), and holiday music is strongly encouraged until then -- though after 25 December we tend to favor the more classical stuff, as we've overdosed on the commercial stuff by then.

[gimmeahand.livejournal.com]

I know Christmas is coming when my husband starts bringing home boxes of the Christmas version of Marshmallow Peeps (Marshmallow Snowmen, Gingerbread Boys, and Christmas Trees). These are his addiction, and he's in heaven since they've been making "Peeps" for all seasons.

He and my son love this website, where they conduct
"BST's" (Bunny Survival Tests) on the Easter couterparts.
http://www.keypad.org/bunnies/

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

The Christmas season begins officially, as it always has in my lifetime, when Santa Claus shows up at the end of the Macy's Thanksgiving parade.

In reality, of course, it begins with Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. (Though much less now than it did when my folks had, and I worked in, a retail business. At that point we went to a seven-day week, twelve-hour days, until Christmas.)

Prior to that, there is no Christmas, and even the hint of holiday music gets snapped off the radio, TV ads with the theme turned off, etc.

[nuveena.livejournal.com]

I'm definitely in the Day-After-Thanksgiving crowd. However, I usually get urges to start the Christmas shopping in October.

This is probably pretty solidly in urban-legend territory, but there's a rumor going around that the reason they've started the Christmas marketing so early this year is that they want big sales before people realize how high their heating bills will be this year.

[eleri.livejournal.com]

It's the Season when I can buy eggnog and candy canes :) I don't really do any celebrating or decorating until after Thanksgiving, though. Although I did finishe shopping way early this year.

[blaisedec.livejournal.com]

At the Carol Sing-a-Long at Darkover Grand Council, after we sing the Hallelujah Chorus around the pool at midnight Saturday night.