I was enjoying the company of family last week when it dawned on me. This isn’t just the holiday season, this is the media season. The time of year when we are more deeply involved with our media than any other time of the year.
Think about it. It starts first thing on Thanksgiving morning. What has been a tradition for an awful lot of us for decades? The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. What I grew up calling the Macy’s Day parade. Over the last 10 years a lot of folks have tuned in the National Dog Show. Don’t believe me, just look at the ratings. I can’t say I understand it, dog shows bore the pants off me, but it’s clear that a lot of folks do watch. Then we get serious. Thanksgiving Day football, now up to three games after years of two.
After that you get the usual batch of college and pro football but that’s just a side dish. Because as soon as Thanksgiving is past we jump into the great Christmas music debate. Now I know that lots of stores and some families have been playing Christmas music for weeks before Turkey Day. But after that people start demanding Christmas music. I regularly played the grinch when I was the music director in local radio because I wouldn’t do it till we hit December.
Beyond the music then we hit Christmas movies and TV specials. How many of you are like me and have shows you just have to see for it really to be the holidays? There might be one, maybe two such programs any other time of the year. But this time of year there are a dozen or more. You have almost that many choices JUST with Dicken’s A Christmas Carol. In the last couple years we’ve seen internet videos of computerized lights and music on people’s houses going viral. Then the New Year rolls around and we have college football bowl games.
Music, movies, parades, TV, football, some great stories get told this time of year as well. Let’s face it, it’s the most media of the year. Let’s just sit back and enjoy.
Call that the View From the Phlipside
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