Let Christmas Have a Vacation

Have you ever had a friend who was completely preoccupied with something? Well, my friend Ann is obsessed with Christmas, and it's driving all of us nuts! Just today, I was over at her house while she was shopping online for shower curtains. She of course treasured a Christmas shower curtain for her master bedroom suite. Now her husband is also a very close friend, and I felt it imperative to intercede on his behalf. I tactfully recommended she purchase some much more tasteful monogrammed shower curtains. When Ann immediately turned her nose up at those as tiresome, I compromised to the point of recommending these (still not exactly elegant, but at least Christmas would be kept at bay). Alas, all my efforts were in vain. Now Tom will have to begin every morning wrapped in Christmas cheer.

Now hear me out, I think Christmas is great. The snow, the lights, the cold, the parties, the singing, the time with family --it's fantastic . But everything has it's place! There is a season for everything, as they say, including Christmas. When you try to preserve Christmas so that it lasts through the entire year, it loses something. In December, it's a special, magical season, But it has no place in July. Nothing is good in overdose --from food, to drink, to holidays.

Is there such a thing as an intervention for people obsessed with particular holidays? Tom would be willing to pay good money to anyone who could break Ann of this monomania, but I can't imagine that's a profession. Sometimes I wonder if we should just let her run wild with her Christmas mania and let her reap the consequences. But that just doesn't seem right. It would be cruelty to her neighbors.