Christmas Cheer...?

NOTE:  The views and opinions in the following column are strictly that of the author.


This time of year, we hear of radio stations programming all-Christmas music, most often concurrent with the start of the holiday shopping season, best known as Black Friday.
Our three-station group is no exception.  We've started the process of integrating holiday music into our own playlists.
However, it never ceases to amaze me how many songs still find their way onto playlists that just make me wonder if these songs were intentionally written to kill the Christmas spirit?
If you ever want to know how to torture me, lock me in a room, tie me to a chair and put a said of headphones on my head.  Play non-stop Muppets Christmas music in one ear, and non-stop Chipmunks Christmas music in the other.
I will likely be dead in minutes.
Cause of death:  liquified brain.
But these are tracks aren't the only ones that are enough to make me cringe.
"The Christmas Shoes" is one.  ANY Christmas song by Red Sovine is another.
And...some of you will likely hate me for this one.
"Happy Christmas (War is Over)" by John Lennon and the Plastic Ono Band.
I don't really hate it...I personally have mixed feelings over it.  It was one of my paternal grandfather's favorites, and it's a favorite of my wife as well.
While John and his completely talentless wife do wish the listener a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, they kind of lay a guilt trip on you for being happy.
"What have you done,"  "I hope you had fun", "the world is so wrong."
Hey, I know it's John and Yoko's thing.  They've been recording protest songs from before the official Beatles' dissolution until John's 1980 assassination.
They're reminding us of those not as fortunate as we.  There are many.  We get it.
Hey John...we're willing to give peace a chance.  But you're not leaving our consciences at peace.  Kind of a Catch 22, wouldn't you agree?
But I digress.  Only because I have to.
My mother reminded me why on Thanksgiving.
I had brought up my wife's 40th birthday that weekend, and my mom had said her own 40th didn't bother her any.  Not even 50.
60 did.  I was not prepared for the answer I received when I asked why.
"Because the people you love start dying," she said.
Friends.  Extended family members.  You name it.
Sadly, my mother has experienced this beginning at the age of 28, starting with the death of my maternal grandmother at 54 of cancer in 1977.  My maternal grandfather died of a stroke a few months shy of a decade later.  Then there were others.
At 43, many of those close to me have passed on.
The point of all this is, some day, we will be alone too.
Not a fun way to be at Christmastime.
As we grow older, our friends and family will die.  Even our friends that we may make in the assisted living facility will someday pass on.
And it makes me think that someday, I too will leave this world and leave my wife and daughter behind.
All the more reason to cherish them and make the most of the time I have with them.
Pause to think about those you know who are without family this time of year.
And reach out to them if you can.
Don't put off what you can do today.


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