End-of-Tackiness Alert

Posted November 26, 2005, 8:26 p.m.

I know I’m a day late on this (as I was last year), but it is time for the annual end-of-tackiness announcement. That’s right, as of 12:00 a.m. on Friday, November 25, 2005, it is no longer tacky to display Christmas decorations, play Christmas music, or do Christmas shopping.

If you did these things on Thanksgiving or before, you have done something very tacky (this goes for both individuals and businesses [including radio stations]). You should be more cautious next year.

If you did the tacky thing and started early, you should remove your Christmas decorations the same number of days before they become tacky again (January 1, 2006). So, if you put up your Christmas decorations two days early (Wednesday) you should take them down on December 30 or earlier to compensate.

Although many businesses and radio stations put their decorations up or music on while it was still tacky, they did much better this year than in the last. Perhaps we are finally seeing a backlash against the ‘Christmas all year’ trend.

Scott Bradford is a writer and technologist who has been putting his opinions online since 1995. He believes in three inviolable human rights: life, liberty, and property. He is a Catholic Christian who worships the trinitarian God described in the Nicene Creed. Scott is a husband, nerd, pet lover, and AMC/Jeep enthusiast with a B.S. degree in public administration from George Mason University.

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