Susan's Scribblings the Blog

So I just came from the Walnut Street Theatre’s new production of “Elf.” Yes, it’s a musical version of the hit movie. Yes, this is just the week after Halloween. And yes, some audience members around me felt that we were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

It’s bad enough that we spend seven months out of the year with our clocks set one hour ahead, but Christmas ads started cropping up the day after Halloween. Sure, some people like the holidays and can’t wait to start celebrating; they decorate starting on Labor Day. So do the holiday food processing plants. Just keep your eye on a box of holiday wrapped candy in your local department store and watch it sit there from September until somebody desperate for something to put under the tree grabs it up. Also makes you think about the preservatives going into that lunchmeat log on display in a cooler in the middle of the mall.

But I digress.

It’s not that I don’t have any holiday spirit; it’s just that it’s TOO  #@&#! EARLY!

Remember when the Thanksgiving Day parade was the measurement of when the holiday season started? Santa Claus used to clinb a ladder into Gimbel’s to set up the toy department overnight for the kids (and their parents) for Black Friday. Now Santa takes up early residence in the mall while the Halloween store is closing out its costumes two stores down the hall.

Now I never saw the movie “Elf.” I only watch one or two holiday films every year, “Christmas Story” being one of them. At least there is a story beyond little Ralphie’s hankering for an air rifle. Now that I’ve seen the musical, I can honestly say I’ve heard enough Christmas music for the season, and it was something other than the twelve standard songs rehashed by countless singers over generations. The songs were great, the dance numbers perky and the plot s simple joy to watch. None of us was ready to think about Christmas this early; it was like going down the shore in a swimsuit. Just bad timing.

Ask me about all of this on December 26th, when I’ll be in a better frame of mind to look back on it all.