’Tis the season.
Remembrance Day has passed and that means it’s time for Jingle bells.
But I’m not ready.
I’m not mentally equipped to deal with the holiday season, let alone logistically prepared to deal with the people who are already jumping on the bandwagon – doing their shopping, pulling out the tinsel and lights and, most of all, playing carols.
It may be that I’m just feeling a wee bit Grinchy, what with the grey skies, rainy weather and the fact that I now leave the house in the dark and return home from work in the same chilly blackness.
And if you’ve read any of my recent columns, don’t even get me started on my distaste for Daylight Savings Time.
I’ve long struggled with a distaste for the month of November, with its in-between the joy of crisp, bright fall days and the fun of actual snow that you can ski or slide on.
November has a way of bringing on the blahs.
If November were a dwarf, its name would be Grumpy.
It’s where curling up on the couch with a bag of chips tends to beat out getting up for a much-better-for-me workout or walk with the dog. It’s tough to get motivated to get up and go out in the cold, dark rain or to feel like ingesting fruit and veggie smoothies rather than carb-laden mouthfuls of chicken pot pie or cheesy lasagna. It’s the time of year when “muffin top” doesn’t just refer to baked goods.
It’s also the month of pumpkin spice flavoured and scented everything, which, while it may be enticing to some people, really makes me feel green around the gills.
Maybe it’s because I always put off dealing with the October’s Halloween Jack O’ lanterns until they have moved beyond the slightly mushy stage into an entirely new living creature that involves green fuzz and a smell that rivals Eau de Hockey-Bag-After-It-Has-Sat-In-a-Hot-Minivan.
And then comes the real November kicker – the commercial kickoffs to the holiday season. The in-your-face reminders that you’d better jump on the buying bandwagon and start exuding Christmas spirit like a cheerleader hopped up on a caffeinated beverage (probably pumpkin spice flavoured).
Suddenly everywhere you turn, you are confronted with fake evergreen bows and reindeer sweaters, poinsettia order forms in school backpacks and the fact that everything smaller than a breadbox starts to be labelled a stocking stuffer.
Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not a total Grinch. I love strolling around the neighbourhood looking at holiday lights while the snowflakes fall, and cups of hot chocolate while watching Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer with my kids. I’ve even been known to play Christmas music at my house while setting up the tree.
But couldn’t we have a moratorium on Christmas just until Dec. 1? Maybe then, I’ll be ready for it.