Wrap This, Pal!

I love Christmas. Love the presents, giving and getting. Love the spirit. Love the all-too-short focus on peace and goodwill. Love the sights and smells. Love the tree. Love seeing the youngest member of the Shallow Center household play in wrapping.

Love the music.

Hate that as of mid-November, not one but two Philadelphia radio stations had gone all-Christmas music, all the time.

Hate it. Hate it heinously. Hate it the way the Grinch hated Christmas before his heart expanded in his chest.

The earlier one hears Christmas music, the more diluted the season becomes. It's only a matter of time before someone here picks up on the cues of the Charlotte, N.C., station that went all-Yule on Halloween. As the season gets more stretched out, its specialness decreases. What's the point of having Christmas if it's going to run from Labor Day through New Year's?

So, please, station managers, please, please, please hold off on playing the Waitresses' "Christmas Wrapping," one of the best of the modern Yule tunes, until after Thanksgiving.

And then play it as often as you can. Christmas only comes once a year, after all, and we need that Christmas magic to bring this tale to a very happy ending.