Christmas too soon

Not a soul had put a knife to a pumpkin and the strains of “Jingle Bells” were heard in stores along with displays of flocked and glittered trees. Why the track meet to Christmas? My body is still mowing the lawn and merchants are bringing Santa and his Elves into my living room. It’s bad enough to be harassed around the evening news time with every drug ad, including, of course, Cialis and Viagra.

Christmas displays adorn the stores before the turkey is presented to us for our Thanksgiving meal. Let’s get our schedules straight all you greedy sellers of Christmas gifts. It’s Halloween in October, Thanksgiving toward the end of November, and Christmas a month after our grateful day.

I haven’t had a good 2013. May I celebrate New Year’s Eve before we sing “Over the River and Through the Woods”?

Where has the reverence and tradition disappeared to in the good old U.S.A.?

I guess the solution to avoiding this money-mongering meddling with our calendar is to mute the TV, close one’s eyes, stay out of the stores, or go camping. Too cold to camp, so it’s earplugs, eye patches and becoming a homebody.

Jock Swanstrom

Spokane Valley