There's no way to say something that starts off with, "Back in my day" without coming across as an old crank. Nevertheless, this is a post about how things used to be very different at this time of year and my general dissatisfaction with things as they are now. Those offended by old cranks may take this opportunity to move along to happier postings if they wish.
It wasn't very long ago when I worked in radio and we handled playing Christmas music very different back then. We wouldn't even consider playing any holiday songs until the day after Thanksgiving, the day we've come to refer to as Black Friday. And even then, we might play one and only one Christmas song in a four-hour shift. We'd gradually add more seasonal music to the mix as the weeks went by and cap it off with around-the-clock Christmas songs for Christmas Eve throughout Christmas day. It made the music seem more special and listeners seemed to enjoy it.
At some point since then, it seems to have become fashionable for stations to start airing non-stop holiday music immediately after Halloween is over. It's not enough that we've been seeing Christmas trees and decorations in the stores since Labor Day. It's not enough that holiday catalogs start flooding our mailboxes in early October. Oh no, we have to start singing about Christmas all day and all night before kids have even finished their trick-or-treat candy. And those of us who complain about starting things too early or out of season are shouted down and decried as miserable Scrooges and Grinches who lack any Christmas spirit.
But the part I find the most worrisome of all of this music being played way too early is the almost complete lack of any reference to Jesus or even Christmas in these songs. I don't think of myself as being particularly religious (my wife says I'm not religious at all) but let's give the reason for the holiday it's due. Yes, early Christians jiggied the date of Christ's birth from early April over to late December in order to make it coincide with the religious holidays of other faiths to convert more followers. But taking Christ our of Christmas is like having the Fourth of July without an American flag. It's as if the stations are trying to get people into a Christmas mood but are afraid that any hint of Christianity will offend them or scare them off.
The bottom line is that anyone who knows me well enough or even has read enough of my previous posts about the holidays can tell that I do indeed have a lot of love for Christmas. But I reserve that love for the proper time of year and try to remember what the holiday is really supposed to be about. Some of my favorite Christmas songs are the ones that are actually about Jesus' birth, the very songs you won't find on very many radio stations...either this early in the season or, sadly any time at all.
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