Michael Giberson
Well, it?s that time of year when we assemble the artificial tree in the front room, decorate it with loads of lights and ornaments, and haul out the stack of Christmas CDs, which gets bigger and bigger each year. I suggested to the spouse that the time had come to sort through our collection and haul a few of the least favored down to the CD Cellar for exchange, but no, apparently every one of them is still special.
It isn?t that the collection is overlarge, exactly, but half the pleasure of a good Christmas CD is that you can play it to death for the first three weeks of December and come the holiday itself you?re still playing the dang thing even though it has begun to sound more tired than a shop clerk on Christmas Eve due to all the repetition and then, the day after Christmas you shout out with glee, ?Finally, I can shove all these %$#&* lousy discs back in the cabinet and I don?t have to see them for 11 months!?
And by that simple act, which has become as much a part of the season as slapping a wreath on the door with a big red bow, I gain the momentum necessary to clean the place up, and faster than Santa can rise up a chimney, the Christmas decorations are packed up and put away.
The problem with the, I don?t know, about 20 or 25 Christmas CDs we have is that we won?t ever get to the point of overplaying the Christmas music. The day after Christmas will come, and we will still have the Christmas CD?s out, and we?ll think, ?Yeah, that sounds nice,? and just keep playing one holiday favorite after another.
The Christmas decorations will stay up through January.