Over Christmas Already…

Before Halloween, the decorations were already in the stores. I thought it was early, but I bought a rosemary Yule tree and a nice secular Happy Holidays sign in the shape of a five-pointed star. Yet here we are at the end of November and we’ve already had over a month of Christmas consumerism. I’m done. I’m over it. Already.

I don’t celebrate this holiday and I’m tired of being bombarded with it. I’m not buying anyone anything. I’m not singing carols. I’m not observing Advent. I’m not attending midnight Mass. I’m not in a nativity play. I’m not celebrating the birth of Jesus. So why do I have endure the onslaught of Christmas every year?

Maybe there’s a positive side to this. Maybe this forces me to withdraw into the quiet contemplation between Hallows and Yule. The journey of the soul from Death to Rebirth is a quiet one, silent, hidden and unseen by mortal eyes. Maybe the battering ram that is the Christmas season serves a purpose.

That doesn’t mean I have to like it. All the shoppers making my trip to the store ten times worse because they’re trying to out-consumer the rest of their family just try my patience. I just don’t have any patience or sympathy for this season anymore. Over the years I have slowly dropped out of family observances. This year I’m completely free and looking forward to Yule. Quiet, hopeful, inobstrusive, elegant, dignified and holy Yule.

Maybe as December wears on it will numb my impatience. Christmas will become background noise as I focus on what’s important about this season for me. Maybe.

Right now, though, I am over this already and dreading another month of saccharine festivity in my face.