Brian and Libby's Blog

Don't fear the cheer

I have been learning a strange and interesting lesson over the past several days. Although it deeply disturbs me, I would like to share it with you.

As previously explained, I love Christmas. No special reason, I don’t have like a whole room with little miniature Santa Claus figurines in my house all year or anything (just for you MEOB), but around Christmastime, I get pretty excited and I have decided to embrace this excitement fully, and share it with those around me. I will admit, my definition of Christmastime is somewhat more broad than others’…pretty much anything after Halloween and before Martin Luther King Day encompasses “Christmas-time” in my mind. No, I do not wear jingle bell earrings or light-up Rudolph sweaters, but I have been listening to some of my favorite Christmas CD’s just to help, you know, get me in the spirit. So I dusted them off on October 28th, what’s it to you?

Well, a couple of weeks ago, Brian and I were out shopping and I found the perfect Christmas tree. It was just like those childhood memories, when you all get bundled into your snow suits, trample through 2 feet of snow in your boots, find that glorious tree in all of its pine needle glory, cut it down, strap it to the top of your station wagon and bring it home…except that we trampled through the crowds in the Home Depot parking lot, and when we found it, we listened to a demo by the voice of Santa Claus about how if one light goes out the whole string won’t be shot (ummm, hello, when you celebrate Christmas for 8+ weeks you can’t get a real tree). It was a glorious 9.5 foot slim Caroline pine with three, count them, THREE different kinds of branches. Because I have set aside a Christmas decoration budget for myself, it was a no-brainer – we will have this tree. We will put it in our foyer, decorate it, drink hot cocoa while gazing up at it, and sing “Fa – whoo – foraze” around it in a circle holding hands with all of our friends. Ok maybe not, but the tree was off the hizzook.

So this past weekend my mom and I purchased the tree (which had, along with several other Christmas trees, been on display for at least 2 weeks at Home Depot, much like various Holiday items in just about every other major North American retailer I’ve visited this week). As I approached the register, the woman who would check me out developed a sizeable scowl on her face, turning to her friend and proclaiming loudly “Now THIS depresses me.” She wasn’t even talking about the fact that she was wearing an orange vest, no, she was criticizing the tree I was buying. Both of these employees went on to explain to me how much they hated the fact that I was buying a Christmas tree even though they had just checked out someone buying a Halloween decoration, and how much they didn’t like Christmas in general.

Although this is by far the most extreme example, I have found that people who do not share my affection for Christmas are somehow propelled to the opposite end of the continuum when I’m around. Does my love for Christmas compel others to hate it more in order to find balance in their worlds? I can’t comprehend this. So I will have my tree up at least one week before Thanksgiving…What’s it to you?

Instead of letting this increasingly apparent trend put a damper on my cheer factor (def. hypothetical meter on which I measure the amount of Christmas cheer I am overwhelmed with at the moment), I have decided to spread my cheer to whoever will accept it. Last week I let a friend borrow a Christmas CD. Although at first she thought it absurd that I even had it out so early, she is now addicted to it and can’t seem to listen to much else…cheer spread, mission accomplished.

In my second attempt, I encourage you to visit this website as often as your schedule permits, to remind you that Christmas, like life, is fleeting. You should enjoy it while you can. If I’ve learned anything through this, it’s that you look less stupid celebrating Christmas absurdly early, than dragging out absurdly late. So get your fill now people, before it’s too late. And for those of you who can’t help but vomit up a Bah Humbug! in response to this post, look out, because the cheer factor is steadily increasing, and I’m coming your way.

If you would like to be as cool as me and have that webpage display as your desktop background (I know, WOW! Does it get any better?) just open the web page, hit View > Source. Then save that notepad document with the extension .html to your desktop. Right click anywhere on your desktop, then choose Properties > Desktop > Browse, and select the file you just created...good stuff :)

posted by Libby @ 3:42 PM