As I mentioned in last week’s Thoughts On A Sunday, “This year’s Christmas season seem more subdued than in the past.” Then, I thought it might have been just me ‘seeing’ this, but after talking to a number of family, friends, and acquaintances it isn’t just me.
Not that people aren’t out doing their Christmas shopping. Quite the contrary. But the enthusiasm I’m used to seeing isn’t quite there this year. I’m not seeing nearly as many Christmas decorations. Maybe I’m not paying attention to what’s being shown on television, but it feels like the number of Christmas specials isn’t what we’ve experienced in the past. The usual ones seem to be missing from the Big Three networks. I know some have only been available on streaming, something that I find disturbing.
Maybe I missed it this year, but I didn’t see anything in the TV listings for one of my old standbys, A Charlie Brown Christmas. Over the previous 59 Christmases it’s been shown it was the one Christmas special we never missed. I remember when it first aired back in 1965. (Yes, I am that old.) But it looks like I missed it this year.
Even shopping seems low key. People are out shopping or ordering online, but folks are taking their time, aren’t nearly as frantic as I remember them being. That may change this coming week as we close in on Christmas Day. I’ll wait and see.
I just hope what I’ve been seeing is just an off-year for Christmas, at least around here.
Speaking of Christmas shopping, I haven’t completed mine, but I have made a dent. Not that I am shopping for a lot of people this year. (That number changes from year to year – up some years and down others. This is an in-between year.) I figure I’ll have mine done by Monday afternoon as I only have a few more people to shop for.
At least some traditions within the WP family have continued. The youngest WP sister dropped off a couple of loaves of pulla, a Swedish coffee bread my grandmother used to make all the time. My sister took over after my grandmother passed away. It took a while for my sister to get it right, but she dialed it in some years ago. She drove up to The Gulch from her place south of Boston early this afternoon to drop them off.
And so it goes…
