December 1.

We’ve made it through Thanksgiving. The turkey has been cooked for over four hours and we’ve eaten it in under four minutes. Now Christmas, the other big holiday that they’ve so cruelly dropped in between now and New Years, is now upon us.

I’ve tried to look the other way for weeks now, since Halloween when stores were already promoting their holiday merchandise in windows all over the city. I’ve tried to look the other way, but I’m poised again to now send out cards and buy gifts I can’t afford for people I care about but certainly haven’t seen enough of since last Christmas.

Why is that? Busy I guess. Lost in our own lives, which is easy enough to do. This morning watching the Today Show, my coffee was getting cold as they told me that the tree lighting is in two days (I nearly dropped the cup). Two days. And in 31 days this year will officially be over. I now know what Charlie Brown was talking about when he said Christmas just ended up making him feel depressed. And no amount of gifts, glasses of highly-caloric egg nog (note: now available in grocery stores) and tidings of good cheer can do much to change that (back off, Linus).

Last night as I was walking up Broadway in 65 degree heat (global warming?), I saw on almost every block, wooden stands holding up trees. Like clockwork they appear every year right after Thanksgiving, and as I passed one near 87th a signing voice imploring me to dream of a white Christmas drifted through the tinny speakers of an old radio. A family of four picked out the perfect Fraser Fir ($90?!) and the Dad hefted it over his shoulder to walk it back to their apartment.

Ok, so I guess I can’t look the other way any longer. December and Christmas in New York are staring me right in the face. And while I can hardly believe it, (and can’t afford a tree) they’ll light the tree in Rockefeller in two days and I’ll eventually go over to see it. I’ll get used to the smell of pine walking to the subway just in time for it to be replaced by dried old trees thrown out and left behind on the sidewalk.

It’s the holiday cycle, and as much as I try to resist it every year, it’s unavoidable. But I figure I’ve made it through Thanksgiving, and if I just keep my head down long enough I’ll make it through to January soon enough, too.