So what should we call it?

Finally it's over, except for the returning and the sales.

It began in late October, pushed by eager retailers, and while many were loath to actually call it Christmas shopping, that's what it was. I suppose it won't be long until the word disappears into the ever-expanding void containing things that are no longer politically correct, but I think it may go down fighting.

Politicians, retailers, and all the other folks who think they're in charge of doing our thinking for us, simply don't have the power to conquer Christmas, at least any time soon.

I don't think it will get so bad that our children's children won't know how to pronounce the word. Movies will help see to that for a decade or so.

How do you beat "A Christmas Story," the sleeper of a cult classic that finds itself running 24 hours a day, sometimes back to back on the same channel, during the season?

And who can overcome "It's a Wonderful Life," another movie that started as a sleeper but gained enough momentum over the years that woe be unto the person who should interrupt it with a press conference.

I guess the worst thing that could happen is, the retailers might again push back the boundaries of the "Holiday Shopping Season" one more time. The next holiday, preceding Halloween is Rosh Hashana in September.

The upshot to all of this is, we'll have three months to pay down our credit cards before the "holiday" gifts are parceled out. The down side is, we'll only have nine months to pay all the rest of the bills accumulated during the post "holiday" sales. We won't have to worry about putting up all those "holiday" lights because we won't have the money to pay the electric bills anyway.

This year I noticed the thing to buy, if you really wanted to light up someone's eye's, was a luxury car. How did we get from a stocking full of candy and fruit, with a present or two under the tree for each of us, to luxury cars, let alone diamonds?

I think I'll soon have to give up the holidays altogether. I just won't be able to afford a season I'll have to pay for year round.

Or perhaps we can start an underground movement. One where people think of other folks who are hungry and cold, or elderly and lonely, and make an effort to make their lives more enjoyable year round.

And we can call it Christmas.