I write this on November 21, 2024.  It is one week until Thanksgiving in the States and I am gearing up for the big event like a sports star revving up for the big game.  Tomorrow is a major league shopping day.  Turkey! Pure Maple Syrup (for my roast pumpkin)!  King Arthur’s White Bread Flour! I am pumped, as I don’t have any major work events after tomorrow. 

My wife and I have already watched our favorite Christmas movie (1984’s a Christmas Carol, starring  George C. Scott) three or four times. I put up the Christmas lights this week, and have turned them on each night since.  We’ve attended cantata practice at church, and tomorrow, we’re scheduled to receive our advent puzzle (which has become a family tradition).

I’ve heard the complaints that everyone is rushing the season.  I. Don’t. Care. I need Christmas.  I really do. I’ve had enough medical concerns this year, minor personal setbacks, and a sense of pre-retirement frustration. And I’ve let them get to me.  That’s been the big mistake.  I’ve LET them get to me.  But as we fired up Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney for the first time last week (White Christmas), the nuisance factor of “real life” was minimized.  I came to the realization that jumping the gun on the holidays might be one of the smartest things I could do.

Think about our holiday behaviors:

  • Scale back on work
  • Prepare our favorite (or at least, special) foods
  • Be entertained by familiar stories, reveling in their familiarity
  • Take time to try out unfamiliar things (Red One, starring Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson) that are framed in the familiar (Christmas Movie)
  • Sing songs that we have known since we were children

Those are powerful behaviors.  They take us away from the routine of e-mail, phone calls and deliverables, and push us instead into the universe of happy, jolly and overfed.  I can live with that.

(NOTE: Red One will never go down as a Home Alone or Christmas Story-class comedy.  But it had all of the critical elements—most importantly, a happy ending).

Rushing the season might be seen as diminishing the importance of the holidays, but I tend to believe the inverse is true. It’s a sign that we’re still capable of getting excited about the little things in life, and that the antici…

pation is still a magnificent emotion.

As I write this, I’m thinking through the laundry list of activities that stretch out in the next week.  I’ll be peeling shrimp for scampi. I’ll hollow out a couple of pumpkins for roasting. The turkey will be coming home from the market tomorrow, and begin its week-long journey to “thawed.” Sugar cookies will be baked. And dozens and dozens of rolls will trundle out of the oven (half plain, half sesame seed), awaiting their co-starring role next week.

And if I didn’t jump the gun?

  • I wouldn’t have the earworm of our church cantata rolling through my head.
  • I’d miss out on eating the occasional “damaged” roll.
  • The house wouldn’t be redolent with the aromas of Christmases and Thanksgivings past.

I know I could wait until the days just prior to the events, but I’ll leave that for those who don’t revel in the notion that childhood can still be a wondrous and sacred time.  My mother was the one who constantly reminded me that she would never let go of her belief in Santa Claus and all he stood for. God rest her soul. She’s right.  And in her honor, I’ll give it all a head start.

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I welcome your comments, insights and shared stories. And I strive to always respond within 24 hours. Be well! Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas!