Railing about how the holiday season (which now, according to many store fronts and radio stations, begins somewhere between Halloween and Thanksgiving and has its hungry eye set on Labor Day) has become irreconcilably tainted with commercialism is almost as clichÈ as saying your mother makes the best mashed potatoes. These are pointless observations - everybody knows Christmas is overrun with shameless consumerism, and my mom makes the best mashed potatoes.
Regardless of your religious or spiritual connections with Christmas, it is safe, and unsurprising, to say that the season has long been a juggernaut for business - especially retail. Some businesses, I've read, even pull up to a third of their entire take for the year within that short, but growing, timeframe. Realizing the impact of the commercial aspects of the holidays, it is an easy jump to make to see how business owners, employees, advertisers and customers all around, may have, for better or worse, shifted their emphasis from a manger to the register.
In this issue we unapologetically play up holiday consumerism, for good reason. Reporter Saraya Brewer introduces our readers to a new Lexington organization, Local First Lexington, made up entirely of locally-owned businesses and offers some shocking economic numbers regarding the choices you may or may not have considered when you are deciding where to spend your holiday buck. Smiley Pete Publishing, which is a Local First Lexington member, even has proposed a modest holiday shopping challenge for our readers, which I hope some of you will seriously keep in mind before braving the packed houses at shopping centers. (Click here to see my slideshow of independent business owners here in Lexington.)
In keeping with the holiday theme, we've also offered a quick photo essay on decorating tips, and Linda Hinchcliffe, in her Fine Lines column, peruses some new youthful holiday literary offerings. Anne Sabatino writes about the second annual Lexington Public Library fundraiser, Night of Literary Feasts, which, if you had an epeolatrist (lover or words) on your gift list, would make a thoughtful present. In his Flicks Picks movie column, Tim Hill writes about Fred Mills, the life force behind the Kentucky Theatre, a gift to Lexington that keeps giving.
We've also included an extensive, citywide holiday and seasonal calendar of events for you to hang on to throughout December and even into January. No matter what Christmas means to you, be it a time of deep religious exaltation, an anticipated occasion for family and friends, a period for intense spending sprees, or simply just a brief time of warmth during the cold, gray winter, I'm certain even the most Scrooged reader out there will find something of interest.
And if during this time of the year you do find yourself actually reflecting about what Christmas or the holidays mean to you, watch for our January issue, which will arrive early this year. It will feature over 60 charities and volunteer opportunities in Lexington. It's about giving, and it's been said before, and it never gets clichÈd.