Some years back, when this blog was in its infancy, in 2018, and yes, I can’t believe that I’ve been writing this now for eight years, I wrote about the wonderful influx of catalogs, mostly clothing, that we get on a weekly basis. Now that the holidays are approaching, well, that influx has swelled into a flood worthy of the Mississippi delta. The season has officially begun.
Continue reading “Catalogs: Coming Fast and Furious”Tag: christmas
Post-Holiday Anxiety – What Are the Signs?
As I’ve written before, there are a cluster of lesser-known psychological conditions related to the holidays, not perhaps even diagnosed by mental health experts, that have gone undetected and untreated. I have taken it upon myself, therefore, to identify them and describe the most recognizable symptoms for my faithful legion of readers. The “umbrella” condition, under which the others fall, is what I call Post-Holiday Anxiety, or PHA. I don’t believe there are any effective treatments yet, as the professionals concentrate on long-term, chronic situations. Besides, these conditions are usually temporary. By mid-January, most victims will see their angst begin to subside, and they are on the road to recovery.
Continue reading “Post-Holiday Anxiety – What Are the Signs?”Christmas Decorations: Too Much?
We all have ideas about decorating for the holidays, both inside and out. Some folks are minimalists. They favor a few touches here and there. Others go in for the lavish displays, making their homes look like Versailles if it were Christmas-themed. No spot left un-hollied, un-ivyed, untinseled, un-mistletoed. More candles and statuary than the Sistine Chapel.
Continue reading “Christmas Decorations: Too Much?”Holiday Traditions – Did you know?
In a television ad a couple of weeks ago, there it was. “Deck the Halls”. Sleigh bells jangling along. Do we really need to start the Christmas music weeks before we’ve reached Thanksgiving? I know that the marketing wants to get the season underway, and they’ve virtually blurred the season. But still? “Deck the Halls” in mid-November? Let’s wait a bit longer on the boughs of holly.
Continue reading “Holiday Traditions – Did you know?”Black Friday . . . . . . Month
Some time ago, I wrote about the “Black Friday” phenomenon. Yes, it started as a shopping binge the day after Thanksgiving. People would be up all night, waiting for stores to open at ungodly hours. Then, in a manner not unlike a scene from the French Revolution, they’d enter the store or the mall. It was literally a frenzy. Later, when the internet was in place, to extend the joy of buying, and home delivery was catching on and Amazon thrust itself forward to fill that void, the marketing wizards invented “Cyber Monday.” Great deals, but online so anyone didn’t like to interact with other shoppers didn’t have to. Our purchases would be delivered right to our front door, where delivery people would snap a picture and send it to us before roaming bands of “porch thieves” would snatch them and run, trying valiantly to evade security cameras. Yes, here we are again, at that truly magical time of year, guilted into shopping, planning, making lists, running out of money, etc. etc.
Continue reading “Black Friday . . . . . . Month”After-Holiday Anxiety – A Belated Update
I wrote much of this over a couple of years, and I’m late posting it this year. Typically, it would go up on New Year’s Day, although it does take time for many of these conditions to settle in. We’re looking at the holidays in the rear-view mirror, as the cold, snowy “bleak mid-winter” has really set in. It started snowing yesterday, continued all night, and is still going today. They – the folks paid to do this – haven’t come to shovel out yet, but that’s ok. I don’t really have anywhere to go. The giddy joy of New Year’s Resolutions has dropped off because, well, it’s the end of January and it’s not that I have tapered off. The truth is, I never started. Added to the winter doldrums, there may be a number of “flying-under-the-radar” psychological issues that have gone undetected, as we hope they’ll go away too, like the resolutions and grand intentions. Primary among these psychological disorders is what I call After-Holiday Anxiety, or AHA. Advice columnists will advise seeking therapeutical assistance as, to my knowledge, the pharmaceutical people are still a few years away from a medical cure – tablets, a vaccine, scented candles, a special lightbulb perhaps. If something were available, I’d surely have seen it advertised by someone turned annoyingly perky on the nightly news.
Continue reading “After-Holiday Anxiety – A Belated Update”Keeping a Sunny Outlook
Yes, I know. We’re into the “bleak mid-winter”. I step out the door, and my nose and hands immediately yell at me, “Quick – get back inside”. The weather is alternating a few hours of sun, followed by clouds, then periods of snow or freezing rain. The wind comes up and rattles the windows. The Super Bowl is coming up, and our beloved Patriots didn’t even make the playoffs. Nothing new really in Red Sox nation either, although it will pick up and we just know that they’ll be a contender next year. My gardens are covered in snow, but I know that underneath all that dormancy, there is beauty just waiting patiently for the warm weather to come back. The election cycle and the primaries are heating up, but I just know that the country will come to its senses and elect someone I like. Or at least one that I don’t think will be in jail by November.
Continue reading “Keeping a Sunny Outlook”The Great Christmas Tree Dilemma
Once again, Americans are divided. Other than politics, looming on the immediate horizon is a truly divisive issue – live versus artificial Christmas trees. What’s best? What makes the most economic sense? What’s best for the environment? We’ve all seen the truck loads of trees cut some time ago rolling into parking lots everywhere for sale. Hardware and department stores have had displays of artificial ones since just after Indigenous People’s (Columbus) Day. So, how to decide. . . .
Continue reading “The Great Christmas Tree Dilemma”
I'm Thinking...No! 