It has come time once again to shift gears. We must put away the candy corn controversy and instead turn our attention to a different years-old discourse: Christmas music.
Some of you will think that listening to Christmas music on Nov. 1 is acceptable, while others will think it is against all the laws of nature — and still, a great few of you probably don’t care.
Once in my life, I vehemently despised people who played Christmas music before Thanksgiving, but as I've grown older, I find myself needing the hopeful, joyful tunes earlier and earlier. This year, especially, I cannot help but long for the holiday season.
2020 has sucked for so many reasons. One reason in particular is that I haven’t been able to see my family as often as I normally do. However, my mother, who has taken COVID-19 precautions more seriously than anyone I know, has vowed that her sons will be home for Christmas.
After all, for the Melfi household, the holiday season has aways been synonymous with family. Growing up, after opening gifts on Christmas morning, we’d pile into our 2003 Honda Odyssey and drive three hours to visit my dad’s family. The next morning, we’d get back on the road to drive another 10 hours to visit my mom’s family.
Of course, that was before my brothers left home. It is rare the five of us (six including my sister-in-law) are all in the same room. But we can always expect to be together for Christmas.
If I am being honest with myself, it’s not so much the music of the Yuletide season I crave, but the nostalgia that comes with listening to “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas” or Nat King Cole’s “The Christmas Song.”
When I play Christmas music, I can clearly see my mom loading her favorite Christmas albums into our multi-CD stereo system, I can smell the Christmas cookies baking in the kitchen and I can feel the chill of the first snowfall (which, in Massachusetts, where I grew up, would be around now).
We no longer have that stereo system, the cookies are usually baked by the time I get home for the holidays and we no longer live in Massachusetts. So much about Christmas has changed, but the music has remained the same, reminding me of all the happy memories I am so fortunate to have.
