Maybe I should get ready for Christmas / Yule early this year?

I have been thinking that maybe the secret to actually being in a decent mood for Christmas is to start out early on getting ready for it. Makes sense. Get things all ready and put the tree up early and just start slowly decorating for the season. The tree usually goes up by the Solstice if I can manage it, since that is the heart of the season for me. December 25th has kind of become the traditional day to open gifts and the mark of when we start tearing things down.

As a kid I used to look so forward to Christmas, but it was the presents that captured my interest more than the decorations. As I get older I find myself looking less and less forward to the Christmas season.

Now it means being accosted by bell ringers as I try to enter stores and getting scowls from them if I do not drop money into their bucket. That annoys the hell out of me, I usually can't afford Christmas for myself, why do they require I give them money for someone else? I used to drop a few coins in. Stopped that because they seemed more disgruntled that it was just a few coins rather than a dollar or twenty. Even had one one day grousing at people that they should give more and trying to make them feel bad if they didn't give at least $5 - think he was the start of my souring on the bell ringers.

Now days I give directly to the places that I feel need the help, such as the American Red Cross, Habitat for Humanity, and the American Cancer Society. Even the Salvation Army allows you to give online rather than to the bell ringers, so from now on that is my route, I'll give online so I know that the money made it to the people it was meant for and the guy with the bucket did not dip his fingers into it like was happening a few years back - the main thing that stopped my dropping money into them buckets.

Okay, complaining aside, I will be starting earlier this year on getting ready for the season. You can see just how much of a Grinch I can get to be. LOL