We’re killing ourselves with Christmas, and media are to blame

KAMLOOPS — If I have to listen to one more Christmas song, or watch one more made-for-TV Christmas movie, it’ll be one too many.

I understand the commercialization of Christmas, and I’m OK with it — everybody’s gotta make a buck. But my real issue is with the media.

I know there’s magic in the air and we should be decking the halls and roasting chestnuts. But, for crying out loud, how many more movies do we need about an impossibly attractive big-city upcoming executive who gets sent to her home town to shut down the factory and put everybody out of work, but discovers true love with her also impossibly attractive high-school sweetheart who stayed behind to become the town handy man, and so on and so on?

And the music. Week after week, we can’t turn on the car radio without hearing wall-to-wall Christmas music. There’s no escaping it. It’s on the streets; it’s in every store.

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Imagine what the poor store employees go through, listening to all that Christmas music day after day after day.

Researchers have found that retail employees are prone to depression from the constant repetition of music and lyrics about this most wonderful time of the year.

We’re killing ourselves with Christmas. It oozes from our every pore.

We used to greet each other with “Merry Christmas!” Now the traditional greeting is “Got your shopping done?”

We get Canada Day wrapped up in about 12 hours. The Christmas season is now longer than the gestation period of an elephant. The official term for it is “Christmas creep.”

A lot of good is done at Christmas, but if the media would simply run Christmas advertising and leave the rest of it for later, and stores would slow down on the music, everybody’s stress level would drop. Couldn’t they… you know, can the Christmas content for six or seven weeks while we quietly do our shopping, and then, around Dec. 1, go for the gusto?

Just an idea. See you at the Boxing Day sales.

I’m Mel Rothenburger, the Armchair Mayor.