Santa baby, please make the music stop for a while

Baby, it's getting old outside.
Please, let me explain:
Recently, I read that Christmas carols have been around for thousands of years. Supposedly they date back to around 120 AD when folks used to celebrate Winter Solstice. Then came Christmas, carols and later, regular old Christmas songs.
So, to recap: Christmas music has been around for more than a thousand years, give or take.
Boy to I feel silly. See, I figured they started about 20 minutes after the first Thanksgiving.
See what I'm getting at here? When it comes to the holidays and Christmas music, I'm as festive as the next guy. Really I am. But as I sit here and look at the calendar on the wall, I see that it's December 1, 2011. The problem is, I've been hearing Christmas songs for at least a month now, if not longer.

I know, I know. This isn't a new objection. Its seems for years now we've been hearing complains that radio stations and shopping mall sound systems have been playing holiday music earlier and earlier.

As a middle-aged guy, I can still remember back to my youth in the 70s and 80s when nary a hint of the holidays was heard until sometime after Thanksgiving.


Now it's been moved up to, what, the day after Halloween? Now that's spooky.
The funny thing is, I can remember by own father saying, “Pretty soon they're gonna start playing 'Jingle Bells' in July!”
Look, I actually like Christmas music. I've got scads of it on my iPod, so much so that I've made a nice little playlist. Unfortunately, I can no longer bring myself to listen to it because I'm already getting burned out. By Christmas Eve, when we'll conspire as we sit by the fire, I'm afraid I'll be so sick of holiday tunes I'll look like the Grinch as I yell, “Enough already!”
The good news is, I've already got a plan for next year. I'm simply going to pace myself better. I'll listen to it a little hear and there – mostly as background noise – but I won't jump into it with both feet until mid-December. By then I figure I'll really be in the right mood for it.
So, that's the plan and I'm going to stick to it like those colorful little lights on the neighbor's roof.
Ho, ho, ho.

(To prove I'm not a total Scrooge, I've posted an awesome picture of my granddog, Rudy)