Not before Thanksgiving!

[muckefuck]

If you know me personally, you will not be surprised to find that monshu had to drag me kicking and screaming to the mall yesterday. The first place we went to was Crate & Barrel which was already fully decked out for Christmas. Worse, they were playing Christmas carols and, worser still, no sooner had I stepped inside when I was assaulted with "Jingle Bell Rock" (universally acknowledged as one of the Top Three Shittest Christmas Songs Ever). I said to myself, Cosmos, you are not making this one bit easier as I gritted my teeth and trudged along after my man and we looked high and low for a particular lamp that wasn't even in that store.

(It turns out that it was the C2 catalog he was looking in. Most important lesson of the trip: Always bring the catalog with you.)

The crowds were heavier than I'd expected. On top of that, almost everyone in line seemed to be clutching some Christmassy gee-gaw or another, leading me to conclude that my anti-retailer rants about Holiday Creep are somewhat misguided. We are simply living in a sick society. Evidence of this came on the trip home: I counted three Christmas trees on display in the block adjacent to ours alone and we passed at least four Christmas tree lots on Ashland on the way up.

Comments

[areia.livejournal.com]

So... if someone on Livejournal broke that rule, would you ban them from your journal or just delete their comment?

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

ooh...twinkly letters...

[areia.livejournal.com]

I guess that answers my question.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Oh, right, your question! I'd hunt them down and kill them. Unless, of course, they were foreign, in which case I'd simply assume they were too ignorant to know any better and let them off with a warning.

[richardthinks.livejournal.com]

I used to rail against the christmasization of autumn and, more recently, summer, but the truth is that life now passes me by in such a terrifyingly fast blur that I'm glad of the reminder, weeks and weeks before the event, that it's coming. Else I'd miss it, like everything else.

[mollpeartree.livejournal.com]

Maybe you could just file each Christmas-junk-buying sighting away as yet more evidence that we're not actually in economic freefall, yet? It's heart-warming!

[areia.livejournal.com]

Ah. Um...

No speaken de English very gud?

[0595.livejournal.com]

You used the word "worser" which invalidates everything else you said in that paragraph.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on revealing yourself to be a humourless Grundy with no feel for tone!

[0595.livejournal.com]

I know you are, but what am I?

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

See the next entry!

[gorkabear.livejournal.com]

You have Thanksgiving in the middle at least
Here's downhill from the-brand-new Halloween celebration (formerly know as Todos los Santos and/or la Castanyada). I have to listen to Xmas carols from the way the bus leaves me to my house, because the street has loudspeakers.

The street has loudspeakers

[ursine1.livejournal.com]

I guess it's a little more rural out here in El Masnou.

I have to chuckle at all the caga tiós and caganers on display.

Chuck

Re: The street has loudspeakers

[gorkabear.livejournal.com]

You live in a more catalan place. We're filled by Santas and I think that the worst Xmas carols are the ones sung by Boney'M

I guanna güisyu a merri krismas
I guanna guisya a merri krismas
from da borom of ma haaaaa

Re: The street has loudspeakers

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

That's the very same song I complained about last week! We generally get the José Feliciano version; whether that's better or worse than Boney'M, I couldn't say.

Re: The street has loudspeakers

[gorkabear.livejournal.com]

Mmm.
I think that Boney'M wins by far.
Seriously, why Xmas things are so damned tacky?

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

People love tacky. That's all I can figure, because it's not like there's any shortage of non-tacky Christmas stuff. I love traditional carols (particularly Spanish villancicos) and it saddens me that you seldom hear them outside of church doors. Instead we get endless gloppy rerecordings of "The Christmas Song" by talentless pop singers.

[richardthinks.livejournal.com]

that's different between US and UK, I guess for reasons of "multi-cultural sensitivity" over here: the UK has plenty of glop, but you also sometimes hear carols in shops over there. Here the closest I've ever heard to religiously-inspired store muzak is Nat King Cole.

I don't know a single person who actually likes Christmas songs. There must be someone, though...

Liar!

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

How can you say this when you know snowy_owlet? Or by "Christmas songs", do you mean specifically "Christmas-themed nontraditional pop songs"?

Re: Liar!

[richardthinks.livejournal.com]

Actually I don't know snowy-owlet's feelings on Christmas music, so I wrote sloppily. I really mean "Christmas-themed pop songs" though. I quite like Canterbury carol.

as to "nontraditional," I prefer the scientific term "glop."

[gorkabear.livejournal.com]

Recogido tu rebaño
Hacia dónde vas pastorcillo
Voy a llevarle al niño que nace
requesón, manteca y vino

Belén, campanas de Belén
Que los ángeles tooocan
Qué nuevas me traéis

____

I'm sure you don't know the funny ones...

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

I'm sure you're wrong!

En el portal de Belén
gitanitos han entrado
y al Niñito de María
los pañales le han robado.

(Éste es un favorito de mi cuñada y lo escuchamos cada año.)