Christmas in July

Christmas in July

Originally published Nov. 18, 2001

About this time every year, people start complaining about retailers stuffing the holidays down our throats way too early.

Me, I don’t blame the stores for having Christmas displays up before Halloween. I prefer to blame my family.

I am the youngest of eight children. All of us are married, and all have at least one child. All told, there are 39 of us lurking out there. So Christmas can get pretty insane.

As long as I can remember, we only had to buy a gift for one sibling a year. The exchange now includes our spouses, while the “Next Generation” – my daughter and her 21 cousins – have their own drawing.

As kids, we called our choice our “Advent Child,” because we used Thanksgiving dinner as the night to pick names.

Things have changed. We’ve all grown up. We’re spread out across four states, with my brother Michael and his family in Florida the farthest away.

That distance keeps all of us from getting together at the same time. With one exception.

Beach Week.

No, not the debauchery parents fear when children graduate from high school. This is worse. Thirty-some Sheas and assorted friends descend on Bethany Beach, Del., every July to remind each other why we don’t get together the other 51 weeks of the year.

I’m kidding. A little bit at least.

So, Bethany in July affords us the only time to get together. Which leads me to Christmas. Naturally, right?

We have now begun to pick names at the beach. So while retailers are packing the shelves with “Back to School” items, I’ve got my mind on what basket to buy Mary or what magazine Eddie wants me to get for him.

Not by choice, mind you. It’s all their fault. I tried to make that clear in the beginning.

Picking in July causes many problems. First, there’s the whole memory thing. I may be the youngest, but even I have trouble remembering whose name I drew.

Second, it only encourages those dastardly early shoppers to begin hunting around for shopping ideas a little bit earlier. I think the first e-mail request for lists – we don’t talk anymore; we just e-mail – came out in mid-October. We hadn’t even bought Halloween candy yet and someone wanted to know what I want for Christmas!

Don’t blame the storefront displays in November. Blame my brothers and sisters.

But I’ll get over it. When all is said and done, the organized chaos on Christmas Eve at my sister’s will leave us all happy. My daughter’s second Christmas – but the first one she can begin to appreciate – will make me forget how wrong it is to pick names so early.

At least until July when my mind drifts to Christmas as I’m wearing flip-flops and a bathing suit.

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