Brace yourself; it’s about to happen, if it hasn’t already. The Christmas season is about to strike with a vengeance. If you receive mail via the U.S. Postal Service, you probably have already been receiving the vanguard of this juggernaut that is about to hit us all the Friday after Thanksgiving. I’m here to give you fair warning. Get that sandbag barricade in position at your front door if you want to stave off the brunt of this onslaught.

I’ve received enough catalogs in the mail in the last three weeks to cause any redblooded mail carrier to have a major heart attack. Name a product, any product, and I’ve probably received a catalog for it at some time in the last three weeks.

The Friday after Thanksgiving, expect longer lines than is normal at all the emergency rooms in the area as all the local hospitals will be overloaded with newspaper delivery personnel lining up for their coronary treatment as well. Newspapers the day after Thanksgiving usually weigh so, much a team of elephants would be hardpressed to haul all those copies to their waiting subscribers.

National government estimates as to the volume of sales this Christmas are somewhat bleak, but rest assured, printing companies and media advertisement organizations will be dancing to the bank to deposit all of their advertising revenues they have reaped as a result of the Christmas season.

Don’t forget the Christmas decoration business as well. It used to be enough to string a paltry string of lights around the eaves of the house to celebrate the season. There are now complete inflatable Christmas scenes with snowflakes blowing around inside for more added Christmas spirit. If you would like to make your house look like Clark Griswold’s home in the National Lampoon movie Christmas Vacation, for about $200 I think you could do that.

There are now companies that will decorate your house for you if you don’t have the time, the inclination or the Christmas spirit enough to accomplish the job. Keeping up with the Joneses when it comes to Christmas decorations has been exponentially ramped up to a new level with the advent of the decoration for hire companies being added to the mix.

Throughout all this Christmas chaos, I can’t help but think have we forgotten the fact that Christmas is actually to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ? It’s almost as if we have thrown out the baby with the bath water when it comes to the real reason for the celebration at Christmas time. It is only right that we feel adulation at this time of year, but we need to direct that adulation toward the savior rather than our outside Santa Claus display or the number of wrapped presents under the professionally flocked Christmas tree.

Sometimes I think it would be better if we all would sit around a candle lit manger scene on Christmas Eve and gaze at a replica of the Christ child and smile at the fact that we have been blessed with his birth and admire the new born Jesus as he begins his earthly existence. Somehow I think we would all be the better for that kind of celebration.

Larry Wilson is a 50-year resident of Sparks and a retired elementary school teacher. You can contact him at lawilson16@aol.com.