Christmas Came (Too Early) to Town

Rant alert!

Aren’t we all creatures of habit? For years now, Meg and I wake up to the tune from our radio-alarm clock. It’s always been set to Toronto’s CHFI radio. Admittedly, the music is repetitive—something to do with the Canadian Copyrights Act, which allows only a very limited number of songs to be played on the airwaves, and it seems that, no matter when you tune in, you’ll hear at least two songs you heard the previous time you tuned in.

The reason we keep our dial on CHFI’s frequency is the couple of morning hosts—Erin Davis and Mike Cooper—who are entertaining and informative, without being intrusive. Quite rare in modern days when everything is taken to extremes and beyond.

Unfortunately, the brains who decide the music policy of the station, take upon themselves to think for us listeners, and potential consumers. And, they decided that they should put us all in the Christmas mood. I’m guessing, for them “Christmas mood” means “Christmas shopping,” which for me are two things at the opposite spectrum of extreme sensations—one is warm and pleasant, another is stress-inducing, blood-pressure rising, hectic endeavor.

So, on Sunday, November 21, CHFI switched into “all Christmas all the time” music mode. That’s MORE THAN A MONTH before Christmas. I already complained about them proclaiming themselves “Toronto's Official Christmas Station” last year, so this year they ditched the “official” part (not because of ME complaining, but someone must have told them the same thing). The rest remains the same. The play nothing but Christmas music!

So, we had to alter our year-round habit (yet again), and we changed all the radio pre-sets onto a different station, until the Christmas madness abates. Because, 41 days of Christmas is a bit more than this consumer can stomach.

For me, Christmas is the time when you sit with the family and reminisce of times past and present, enjoy the dinner and cookies, with eggnog or wine around the (optional) fireplace. The carols are welcome, but only on the Christmas eve. Anything more than this picture is a travesty of consumerism. I wish there’s something that can prod the collective sense of the consuming masses of North America into boycotting Christmas shopping and enjoying the Christmas evening. Isn’t that a fair trade? More than a month filled with stresses and excesses of unnecessary shopping for ONE evening with the family.