Grumpy young man

This title speaks for itself. I'm invoking my genetic predisposition to incessantly whine about trivial life events.

I used to like Christmas.

That was, of course, before the Christmas shopping season started in October, outdoor lights went up before Thanksgiving and Christmas music assaulted my eardrums as soon as Dec. 1 rolled around.

Wait a minute, you’re asking, aren’t you far too young to be a crotchety old man? Frankly, no. Christmas is a wonderful time of year, but 12 days of Christmas is about all I can handle anymore.

Maybe I’m bitter because I don’t get Christmas vacation anymore. Sure, I don’t have to work Dec. 25. But when I was in grade and high school, there was a guaranteed two weeks of freedom every December. By the time I got to college, it was up to three or three and a half weeks, depending on when finals were over.

But in the real world? In the real world, Christmas vacation is a bit of a myth. I’m sure the retailers know this. For them, Christmas isn’t so much a time of happiness and relaxation, but a four- to five-week make-or-break period that sometimes decides if the store can stay open another year.

For many professional people, Christmas vacation is a possibility if they either take no time off the rest of the year or have earned enough vacation to burn some time for spring break, a summer trip and winter holidays. Even so, it often means a stack of work before you leave and a bigger stack the first day back.

But my bitterness isn’t all about vacation. I have some personal days off I can spend before the end of the year, so I’m doing well. I just don’t understand why Christmas keeps growing and growing, eclipsing Thanksgiving and Halloween.

Halloween I could live without, I suppose, but I really enjoy Thanksgiving. And anymore, Thanksgiving serves simply as a day to rest up before the Christmas shopping season takes off. Never mind that Thanksgiving is also a great time to reach out to those less fortunate than most, we plow through the Turkey dinner, power nap and line up outside our favorite store at three the next morning.

Oh, and give thanks for this country we’re in and stuff like that, you know, if we have the time.

Celebrating Christmas from Thanksgiving on doesn’t leave us much room to honor Hanukkah or Kwanzaa, either, but no one seems too concerned that we don’t take time to observe the different traditions of alternate cultures.

And Christmas songs… ugh. I love a good Christmas tune. “O Come All Ye Faithful” is one of my favorite songs, period. But if you’ve heard it 300 times since Dec. 1 — and not just the original as performed by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, but also a blues version, a jazz version, a Clay Aiken “American Idol” special or the Jay-Z and Snoop Dog “Faithful Posse” remix — it’s tough to get choked up when you hear it Christmas morning.

This might not be so bad if I wasn’t married to a music teacher, which means going to three or four concerts stacked with holiday repertoire. But sometimes it’s just the radio that gets to you, or the music piped through the PA system of your favorite store. I feel guilty if I think about something else in December besides Christmas. Like, oh, I don’t know — Pearl Harbor?

Why is it that Christmas, a religious holiday commercialized almost beyond recognition, commands almost an entire month of our attention, while other days are allowed simply to sneak up on us?

Do people outside of military families know the depth of certain holidays like Veterans Day or Memorial Day? Nearly all of us benefit from the struggles honored on Labor Day, but we mostly use the first Monday in September to put away our white shoes until May.

I’m not trying to glorify Arbor Day or even Mother’s and Father’s Day here, but why are there countless made-for-TV movies ready for the Christmas season and barely a sniffle when we prepare to honor our country’s independence and the people who fought and died for it? Is there any perspective left in the world?

At the end of the day, I suppose my problem isn’t with Christmas. I still really enjoy the day, remember why we celebrate it and look forward to Dec. 25 (though I might not start looking forward as earlier as the rest of the capitalistic world). I like getting presents. I like giving presents. I even like decorating the tree (though I do not like yelling at the cats to stop eating it).

My problem is with the ability of American people to ignore that which should be treasured the remainder of the year. Christmas is great, no doubt. But there are lots of other events that deserve similar attention.