It's beginning to look a
lot like Christmas.
Already.
Even before Halloween jack-o-lanterns were
carved, retailers were advertising the joys of Christmas gift-giving --
and getting -- on television.
And no sooner will the Thanksgiving
turkey be carved before radio stations start playing Christmas music,
some of them nonstop, through Christmas Day.
"In a sense we've done this
backwards," said Vicky Tufano, general editor for Chicago-based Liturgy
Training Publications, which publishes books and other resources for
parishes and families on all manner of Catholic life and practice.
"We
put up the Christmas tree four weeks before Christmas, and we throw it
out the next day" after Christmas. It requires some intentional work by
families, and sometimes even parishes, to keep the intent of Advent
intact, Tufano said.
She acknowledged that even Catholic families unused to instilling
Advent customs in their homes might be feeling uneasy over the
ever-encroaching Christmas creep, even if they can't put their
uneasiness into words.
Christmas, she said, "gets closer and it starts
earlier and earlier," Tufano said, taking note of the new craze of
stores opening the night of Thanksgiving Day to get more shoppers, and
more money.