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Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2002 - 10:47 p.m.

Tuning into the holiday spirit

Before Thanksgiving, it was annoying when a few companies would sneak in a few early Christmas commercials. Even with Thanksgiving a week later, it was still too early. It's not so much the date on the calendar that says, "Hey, Christmas season is here!" It's more the season, that time of year that begins with whatever traditions you celebrate with your friends and family beginning with that last Thursday in November.

Before Thanksgiving, there were a few houses decked out with lights, a few ads popping up, a few holiday-themed promotions creeping in. All the stores, of course, had their Christmas displays up and intrusive. But last weekend was the true start of the season. Tessa took Christmas CDs back to school from Greensburg. I noted nearly a dozen people putting up decorations during our four days in Johnstown and Greensburg. Now it's starting to feel like that time (the fact that it's December 4 helps) and I'm itching to do our own decorating. We'll have to wait until Sunday, though, because it would've been imprudent to take all the lights and accessories from Little Silver to Pennsylvania and back. So on Saturday, we'll go down to my parents' to divvy up some of the lights, the ornaments, the music. On Sunday, we'll bring it all back here, we'll get our first tree, and we'll bring Christmas to our home.

There was one time when I was young my dad and I were driving to the mall in mid-November. We went down a familiar street ? one of those we always took when going to the mall ? on which I recognized houses as having impressive, even gaudy, Christmas displays each year. It was still early, though, for any decorations to be up. But one house was ready, and their lights were on. I wondered aloud why they'd have their lights up so early, and my dad's response was that maybe there was someone in the family who was sick and perhaps this would be their last Christmas, or they might not make it to Christmas, so they put them up early. Way to go with the morbid explanation, Dad. But who knows ? perhaps he was right. I hope they enjoyed that Christmas.

Tonight, in one of the small holiday season traditions that TV has taught, I watched the lighting of the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree. Watching from the warmth of our living room/sauna, Casey and I remarked how we were glad to be inside in our sweats rather than out there in the 20-degree cold with 65,000 others. "Yeah," I said, "but I think I'd rather do that than New Year's in Times Square."

Christmas at Rockefeller Center seems calmer, more welcoming than New Year's in Times Square. Fewer drunks and the potential for an overall more pleasurable experience, I think. The things that bothered me about the broadcast were Michelle Branch singing a medley of her three hits rather than a Christmas tune; Sheryl Crow getting to perform "Come On, Come On" in the middle of the show after opening with "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)"; and the two chicks from American Dreams (Brittany Snow and the brunette), who ad-libbed enough "wooo!"s and shrill cheers to pass the minimum requirement to be on TRL. And I made the mistake of nearly looking forward to Kelly Rowland's performance. Although I have no use for Destiny's Child, she does have a good voice, but it became clear that she couldn't get through even an intro to "Do You Hear What I Hear?" without laying down a "C'mon, lemme hear ya!" and waving her hand in the air.

"When's Nelly coming out?" I asked. "Do you hear what I hearrrr?"

"East Coast!" Casey said. "Do you hear what I hear?

"West Coast! Do you hear what I hear?"

Brian Setzer was pretty good, but some NBC tech fucked up when he went into "Jingle Bells" after the tree was lit because Setzer's mic went out. But his swing-style versions of holiday favorites were catchy enough to send me to CDNow just now to check it out. And Ben Taylor singing with his mother (Carly Simon) on "Silent Night" was soothing. Ben's resemblance to his father James was so striking that I called Mom to make sure she was watching, and we spent the rest of the song talking on the phone. She even called me back after we'd hung up to complain that she missed most of it. "Well I was watching while we talked," I said. "But I wasn't," she replied. And yet, she was the one who kept talking after I said I just wanted to make sure she was watching.

So maybe I'll buy her Carly's CD even though it appears that Ben only sings with her on "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen," not "Silent Night."

I am inexplicably tired somewhat early tonight and I think I'd rather not fight it.

Good night.

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