Why I Love This Time of Year + Reasons I Don’t — Tommy Rocker’s Rant

Fall is here and that means one of my favorite holidays, if you can call it a holiday is coming up. Halloween, without a doubt is the best holiday. We get to dress up have parties and act like a kid, for one night. I love the fall season except that means the old jolly elf is on the way and it comes sooner and sooner each year.

Going into the store today it should all be about the ghouls and spooks. Big spiders, ghost and witches are everywhere, but so is the hint that Christmas is right around corner. Now, I’m not a scrooge. I love the whole holiday season. All of the great TV shows, foods and gifts, but it seems to me that each year they just meld more and more into one holiday. To me that really sucks.

Halloween is a time for kids to dress up and score a huge bag of candy to eat on for a couple of weeks. Today adults really get into the act and most pub’s and clubs have some sort of party, which is great. We host one each year and people have a lot of fun. But, Halloween is its own holiday.

Thanksgiving the food holiday. This is the time for family, friends, football and a big turkey. Maybe it’s just me but every year a group of us gathers at one of our homes, cooks a big meal and watch football all day. What could be better? It’s not Christmas. Thanksgiving is its own holiday, with its own traditions and events.

Black Friday is the day that the Christmas season kicks off. The big shopping day where people go out at 3am, get in line to score great deals on the stuff they will give as gifts. That is the day that all the Christmas stuff should come out. When I was a kid Thanksgiving weekend was the weekend we would get our tree and my mother would plan out all the treats she would bake for the holidays.

Now, they just cram all the holidays into one big push, and if you’re like me and your birthday falls in that window then it’s just one more day in the mess. I know the retail stores need the whole season to set them up for the next year, but this year let’s try to take time to separate each holiday and really enjoy them.