Holiday Ideas

As July fades from view I am feeling a little sad.
It is definitely one of my favorite months since it is when many people celebrate Christmas, my favorite holiday of the year.
“Christmas In July’ sales have changed July for me. I once looked at it as just an oppressively hot month where traffic increased along with body sweat and some people exposed parts of their body that are better left covered for the sake of all mankind and now looked at it as….well..a month that has Christmas in it. How could anyone hate that?
Marshmallows roasting on an open fire
Mosquitoes nipping at your nose
Rap Music being loudly blared from car windows
And folks dressed up like….well..hardly at all.
Yes, it’s the most wonderful time to drink beer.
I think that having Christmas in July is a great idea and we should consider officially moving it. Just think how convenient it would be for all of us. Even those who protest against having anything to do with Christmas be represented anywhere would have nice weather for their protests.
We’d never have to worry about not making it to Grandma’s house because of a snowstorm and once we got to Grandma’s we wouldn’t have to worry about being trapped in the house all day with boring conversation, we could go outside to play horseshoes just to break things up for a bit.
We all know what the real meaning of Christmas is (if you said it is to introduce the newest electronic gadgets you would be incorrect) and the date will probably not change anytime soon. Still, the idea of Christmas in July has me thinking about how things might be if we celebrated other holidays on different days than we are used to now.
If our Founding Fathers had declared our independence from Britain on, say, January 13th, we wouldn’t be celebrating the Fourth of July, we’d be celebrating the Thirteenth of January.
We wouldn’t be having the traditional barbecue; we might all be going over to the neighbors for a big lasagna or maybe the ubiquitous Independence Day brisket. I doubt we’d be attending many parades, especially here in the Northeast. There might not even be fireworks involved (which would be a huge disappointment to a few knuckleheads in my neighborhood who think every night in July and August is Independence Day). It may sound weird now, but if we were celebrating the Thirteenth of January all along, no one would know any different (not even to the knuckleheads who would, I’m sure, use any excuse to wake me up at 11pm).
One holiday that would be easy to change the date of would be Presidents Day. Anyone over the age of twenty-five might remember that this holiday used to be two holidays in February; one for George Washington and the other for Abraham Lincoln. It was decided, by somebody I guess, that we should just lump them in with the rest of the Presidents, no matter how good or bad, and call it Presidents Day and just celebrate it in February since we were already used to that. It was also a good month for car dealers to have sales.
My idea would be to celebrate Presidents Day on a different day every year to honor each President. We could have it one year on March 18th (or the closest Monday) for Grover Cleveland and then the next year on October 5th for Chester A. Arthur and so on. This might encourage people to learn more about our presidents as it will help them plan next year’s long weekend getaways.
Speaking of Abraham Lincoln, imagine what Thanksgiving would be like today if he had declared it should be celebrated on the last Thursday in June instead of November. Maybe we wouldn’t be celebrating with turkey, squash and pumpkin pie. Instead it might be cheeseburgers, potato salad and slushies.
Would the stores have “Black Friday” sales the next day seeing that it is so close to “Christmas in July”? Your guess is as good as mine on that one.
Now that it is August, I will miss having Christmas in July. In all honesty, I’m not much for shopping so I don’t take advantage of the sales. I just enjoy annoying certain people by saying “Merry Christmas” to them in the middle of the summer.
It is those small things that feel like tiny holidays to me.

Brendan will be at the Lake Winnipesaukee Museum in The Weirs On Wednesday, August 5th at 7pm. 

Visit Brendan’s website for information on his books and speaking engagements at brendantsmith.com or follow his blog at FoolinNH.com