Things that irk you......

Shhhh! You're both pretty!

 

Without wishing to wade into the above sniping, I do want to say I regard Halloween as one of the aggressive holidays, in the sense of expanding to crowd out other holidays' space. This is especially true here in Boston, where I honestly think it would finish first if there was a poll asking people which they'd keep if they could only one holiday. Oct. 1 is now like the starting date for outdoor decorations, and most neighborhoods have plenty. And of course there's Salem, Mass., which gets a crowd of over 50,000 every Halloween. I have nothing against Halloween, even adult Halloween, but I wish it'd keep inside its space of about a week. Of course, Christmas is the frickin' Mongol Empire of aggressive holidays. It ought to be a federal law forbidding Christmas music or decorations until the day after Thanksgiving, the Poland of holidays squashed between its two aggressor neighbors. It's my favorite. All you do is cook and eat a big meal and watch football on TV. What could be better?

 

“The Poland of holidays squashed between its two aggressive neighbors.”

Love it

 

Holidays ranked by me:
1. Thanksgiving. See above post.
2. Christmas. Everything about Christmas is cool. That's its problem. People love it so much they keep trying to extend the season.
3. Fourth of July. Have a cookout and watch fireworks and maybe a parade. What's not to like?
4. Memorial Day. Unofficial start of summer. About the time you can be pretty sure you can attend a night game at Fenway and not freeze your ass off.
5. Halloween. I dislike both candy and costume parties, so nothing here for me except I like jack o'lanterns.
6. Labor Day. Unofficial end of summer. That's sure something to celebrate.
7. Easter. More than once there's been snow on the ground here. See Halloween for dislike of candy.
8. New Year's Eve. Like celebrating your car hitting a round number on odometer.
9. New Year's Day. Welcome to New England winter!!!
10. Valentine's Day. Nothing like throwing obligations into romance.
11. St. Patrick's Day. No redeeming characteristics at all.

 

I like Halloween, but you won't catch me going to Disney without kids or buying Marvel tickets.

 

Solid list. I like Halloween a little more than you do, so I might slide it up a spot or two but I'm not sure which one of the top four I'd switch it with. Maybe Thanksgiving or Christmas. Family obligations always make those holidays feel like work. You have to visit this person or that person, and if you have two or three branches of the family to get around to it's an exhausting all-day affair.

If Labor Day is the unofficial end of summer then Halloween is the official end. Everything changes after Halloween. We roll the clocks back and it gets dark at 5:30; the weather gets colder (as if on cue, it dropped 30 degrees from Oct. 30 to Oct. 31 this year); you're immediately launched into Thanksgiving/Christmas prep at work (trying to make sure you have content done ahead of time to fill those slow weeks); high school football is winding down; and you have four months of dark and cold to look forward to. It doesn't help that I'm not the biggest fan of soccer and basketball, our two winter sports here.
I like Halloween not for the candy and costumes, but because it's the last gasp and last celebration of warm weather and long days.

 

Big weather difference. Summer and warm weather are usually over by mid-September here. There are warm nice days in October, but after Columbus Day, not often. So Halloween is a pure fall holiday for Boston. Same way I'll bet Easter is nice in your parts.

 

Yeah, down here we'll get some chilly evenings in October but for the most part it's in the low 80s all month. This was the first football Friday that I've had to bundle up, and it still was in the 40s at kickoff.

 

No love for Martin Luther King day? Raycess.

jk

 

People.

 

I forgot one of the best parts of Thanksgiving. Wednesday night before you're 30 when you go out drinking with your high school friends!
PS: The electronic publishing firm I worked for after the Herald was the only company I knew of that gave MLK Day off (public worker holiday days don't count). Holding company was based in Birmingham, which was the reason. No Columbus Day or Veterans Day, but two days for 4th of July, Christmas, and Thanksgiving. Good trade there.