There is one thing I feel very strongly about – Christmas. Not the holiday itself, but the build up to the big day. That build up starts far too early and I am sick of it. One of my roommates has been singing Christmas carols since Halloween when 99.1 started playing them nonstop. Santa has been set up in Boston Store downtown since September, I saw my first Christmas shopping TV commercials this weekend, Christmas colored M&Ms have been selling in Walgreens for at least a month and the city of Milwaukee set up decorations downtown on Election Day. I long for the good old days when Santa made his first appearance at the end of the Thanksgiving Day parade. That’s the real way to bring in the holiday. He appears in the mall the next day since everyone and their brother is out shopping anyway. What happened to that timeless tradition? Apparently it wasn’t so timeless. The Christmas build up has been getting earlier and earlier each year. I worry that 10 years from now the build up may start in the summer and there may be a whole new meaning to Christmas in July. I know some people out there agree with me because there’s even a song written about it – The Way-Too-Early Christmas Song.