Birthday puts the brakes on holiday hype

There’s no doubt the dash to Christmas has begun, with several people in my world charting already the number of shopping days until the big event.

To me, that’s akin to embracing mayhem. What’s funny is folks thrive on it. They can’t wait to declare, “I’ve finished MY Christmas shopping,” to the rest of us who haven’t even started or who prowl stores desperately Christmas Eve hoping for a miracle on Commercial Street.

Such shopping epiphanies are few and far between; contrary to popular fiction that proclaims Dec. 24th as a most magical day. Maniacal, perhaps, but magical? Fuggedaboutit.

I refuse to get sucked in, or at least be Hoovered to a smaller degree, because nearly everyone in the western world succumbs ultimately to the hype. Even diehards like me break down and are swept away eventually in the churning tide of commercialism that characterizes the season.

However, I resist bitterly to the end, and I think my daughter has a great deal to do with that. Her birthday occurs at the end of this month – on Halloween, in fact – and Christmas pales in comparison.

The former precedes and precludes the latter. While others currently anticipate Christmas – with its joys, trials and expectations – we’re deep into cake, dress-up, house party plans and who’s going to be what on All-Hallows Eve.

Our girl is leaning toward a princess this year, complete with sparkly shoes, pink gown, a tiara and maybe elbow-length gloves to accent the ensemble. Our big boy is similarly engaged, indicating he will represent either as Spider-man or a dragon. Don’t know how characters as divergent as these occupy such prominence in his mind, but it is what it is. As a parent, you learn to roll with it and simply smile and nod.

The house will have to be adorned appropriately, so a trip to the dollar store looms large in my immediate future. We’ll need cobwebs, skulls, ghostly (and ghastly) icons, spooky music and gimmicky things like fake eyeballs (which double as candy), gummi worms and other foodstuffs equally as chilling.

I’m okay with all that because Halloween is – and always has been – a real hoot. What could be more fun than seeing yourself 10-feet tall, with power to leap buildings, cast spells, charm candy from your neighbours and bewitch your parents into letting you stay up past your bedtime?

Even Christmas doesn’t hold such sway. On Christmas Eve, for example, kids have to be in bed and asleep early because Santa won’t come if you’re still awake.

Halloween allows just the opposite. Sure, you have to be home at a reasonable time, but treat bags will swell only if you persist just a little bit longer and hit one more house. What’s cooler than that?

We shouldn’t rush headlong into Christmas. It’ll arrive on silicone-slick sleigh rails as surely as the elves are busy in Santa’s workshop making a list and getting him to check it twice.

Thank goodness I have a birthday to mark between now and Christmas. It’s a tacit reminder to live in the moment and appreciate what I have without the distraction of all the holiday hype. And for that, my friends, I will be eternally grateful.