In the immortal and not particularly profound words of The Beach Boys, “Christmas comes this time each year.” In fact, the “this time each year” when Christmas comes seems to be getting earlier and earlier each year. It’s not unusual to see Christmas lights and decorations gracing your favorite big box retailers prior to Halloween. I snapped this photo of construction on Santa’s Village at the Glendale Galleria on Columbus Day weekend a couple of years ago.
Lest you accuse me of warring on Christmas, I’m happy to go on record as a big fan of the holiday and its musical soundtrack. However, I’m also a big fan of America’s second-most popular holiday, Thanksgiving. I regularly mount fierce offensives (on social media) against my friends (and I have more than a few) who troll me by referring to Thanksgiving as “pre-Christmas.”
Who knows? Maybe the “pre-Christmas” crowd is just reacting to the pumpkin-spice-everything craze, and if so, that’s completely understandable. Nobody needs pumpkin spice Life cereal, pumpkin spice dog treats, pumpkin spice kombucha (which, apparently, pares well with pumpkin spice kale chips), or pumpkin spice aerosol flavoring spray.
PSL notwithstanding, for me, autumn is my favorite season of the year. Despite what the pre-Christmas crowd says, it’s still autumn until four days before Christmas. So, in that spirit, here is an autumn playlist in case you’re not ready for Christmas music yet. Listen to it in order or put it on shuffle, whatever you like. Most importantly, enjoy!
