Slippin' into Christmas

[muckefuck]

What I Should Do Today: Clean off this embarrassing disaster of a desk.
What I Will Do Today: Obsess about Christmas and watch the clock.

I can sympathise with what epanastatis and like-minded individuals who were exasperated with the Christmas build-up before it began must be going through. It must be the most tedious thing on earth to hear everyone going on endlessly about how fun, trivial, exciting, frustrating, and beautiful something is that you have absolutely no interest in.

It's like the relationship between me and Britney Spears.

But I can't help; I'm like a boy in love. Sure, there's a lot of unrealistic idealisation going on, but that's infatuation for you. Fortunately, I've been through this particular wringer enough times to be properly prepared for the inevitable letdown--may it be as gentle as possible! That may be the chief advantage to celebrating the holiday way from my dearest, since it leaves me with something still to look forward to after the presents are all unwrapped and the gingerbread is gone.

The biggest source of stress--and by this, I mean bad stress, since excitement is stressful and exhausting, even while being rejuvenating and blissful--the biggest source of stress, even more so than my family (which I uncharacteristically get along with and even enjoy), is getting the shopping done before deadline. And, this year, I'm substantially finished. The only things I haven't bought are things I need to buy in STL, like an edger for my father (can't imagine they'll let me take that on the plane) and something for my mother's new place, which I've never seen.

As a result, I could really enjoy last night's jaunt to Lincoln Square. I spent three hours bouncing from one store to another, buying very little and only what really caught my eye. I may be in trouble, since I found a gorgeous pendant for my stepmom at her favourite jewellery store in town and nothing equally smashing for my mom. To spare mom's feelings, I think I might arrange to have her not around when I give that gift.

Comments

[gopower.livejournal.com]

National Review Online today is full of stories of the decline of Christmas, attributed largely to a secular blue-state movement.

Even back when Illinois went Republican from time to time, though, I felt that Christmas was a minimal event here. It seems like hardly anyone puts up lights in Chicago, certainly a far cry from the Boston suburb where I grew up. Even the significant minority of Jewish households there had some kind of holiday decorations -- lots of lighted menorahs in the windows, etc.

That said, my own lights are still in a box, though I'm thinking of putting them up this weekend.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure if you'd see a significant difference in the suburbs as opposed to the city. I'm never in Chicago for Christmas anyway.

[lhn.livejournal.com]

I don't know about Chicago proper, but the west and southwest suburbs are full of elaborate Christmas light displays, often with manger scenes, Santa and reindeer, or sometimes both. (Well, you don't think that Santa would have skipped Baby Jesus on his birthday, do you?) North suburbs as well, come to think of it-- we saw quite a lot driving through Des Plaines (City of Destiny, as the plaques below the stop signs-- which are rusting, naturally, for full ironic effect-- proclaim).

[prilicla.livejournal.com]

I think this may depend on the neighborhood. When we drove home from Midway on Monday night, practically every house had lights up, and lots of them had full-yard displays. My favorite was the Nativity scene with Santa giving presents to Baby Jesus. Oak Park has some nice displays, too, but there are more houses without decorations than there are on the Southwest Side.