Linger//October 89th, 2023

Christmas lingers, like a stain that won't wash out.

The party is over, yet all the evidence of it remains. 

No one questions whether or not it happened. The signs of it are everywhere. The word is on everyone's tongues, the decorations remain, the music still blares.

Three days later and it looks like it's still coming. The world is still so jovial. Christmas is not celebrated for a single day. It goes on, allowing each individual to decide when it is over. As if the universe itself is refusing to let it go.

As I stare at the Christmas wonderland still built up around me on December 28th, I think only about Halloween. I think about how quickly Halloween disappears. How quickly it's packed up again come November 1st morning. As if people are embarrassed to admit that they enjoy it, that they even celebrate it in the first place.

Christmas is treated like a prestigious trophy, while Halloween is treated like an undergarment left out on a clothesline. Get it away. Get it back inside, before anyone sees. Before anyone knows.

No one outside of my immediate circle ever asks me how my Halloween was. Yet everyone wants to know about everyone else's Christmas. Does the conversation about Christmas, really ever even stop?

As I stare at a life size Santa Claus, carrying his list and his bag of toys, I can't help but think he would not still be standing here, three full days after his holiday, if he were a skeleton. 

Is it because people fear death? Is it shameful to admit we think about it, even for just one short month out of the year? 

At least death is real. 

I think of the people, who seem to have such fun when it's 'spooky season'...and I can't help but wonder, how many more of them wish the skeletons and pumpkins could still stand tall, like Santa and the trees? 

I think of the people who seem so agitated, so obligated, preparing for Christmas. Do they really even want to celebrate? Do they even think of it as a celebration? They seem to want it over with, but then...

Christmas lingers, while Halloween is forgotten, nearly immediately.

It doesn't seem fair, as I hear, for the billionth time this year, how some moronic singer wishes it could be Christmas every day. 

Christmas never stays in its lane. The most stressful time of the year overtakes us all, like it or not. And no one comes to shoo it away.

Not like they do to Halloween, the very second it's over. 

Can't have people knowing who we are, inside, for more than a month at best. 

But I can't help but wonder...do we pretend more at Christmas?