’TIS the season,” the old carol says, “to be jolly.
“Fa la la la la, la la la la.”
That old carol has a lot to answer for.
Because of the song, the months between Halloween and Epiphany have become the season in which it seems that every other newspaper feature article or column (including those in The Gazette) and every light feature story on local television news begins with the words “’Tis the season ...” .
To everything, the Bible tells us, there is a season. Apparently, this is that season.
Give the writers and the talking heads a few points for recognizing that Christmas is approaching, but zero for creativity. “’Tis the season” may have seemed like a good first line for a Christmas feature the first dozen times it was used, but that was decades ago and the use of the phrase has multiplied. The phrase has also spread from specific Christmas use to just about any event that comes along.
These days, ’tis the season to be a basketball fan, to get a car’s brakes checked, to mulch the garden, to create a whole new you.
The nation has long since passed the point when, to paraphrase Charles Dickens, every idiot who goes about with “’tis the season” on his lips should be boiled with his own pudding and buried with a stake of holly through his heart.
It is time for journalists and commentators to find a new Christmas crutch — apologies to Tiny Tim.
The change would not require any great effort or imagination. Just dump the office copy of “Deck the Halls” and try a few other carols, such as:
In the bleak midwinter, coach Charlie Gumball sat hunched over his shabby desk, pondering his team’s unprecedented 200-game losing streak.
Away in a manger, no crib for a bed, the little Lord Jesus lay down his sweet head, but that won’t ever be a problem at Emporia’s new Waldorf Astoria Express, which has enough beds to give an entire Roman legion a good night’s sleep.
Angels we have heard on high say Monday is going to be the biggest shopping day of the holiday season.
Stylistically, the change brings no improvement, but at least it would be different.
’Tis the time to close the season.
Fa la la la la, la la la la.