{"id":18715,"date":"2017-10-18T13:26:17","date_gmt":"2017-10-18T17:26:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=18715"},"modified":"2017-10-18T13:26:17","modified_gmt":"2017-10-18T17:26:17","slug":"brocks-banter-ghosts-of-christmases-alarmingly-present","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/brocks-banter-ghosts-of-christmases-alarmingly-present\/","title":{"rendered":"BROCK’S BANTER: Ghosts of Christmases alarmingly present"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

Do you ever emerge from a deep, deep sleep and, due to one circumstance or another, think you have drastically overslept?
\nOddly enough, this is a feeling recently that is probably a bit more than my fair share.
\nLast year, for instance, after a particularly long night before, I decided to give myself a treat. There was nothing in particular that needed to be done with great urgency the next morning so I rolled over in the middle of the night and switched the alarm off.
\nI\u2019ve yet to hear a sweeter sounding click.
\nThat all changed the next morning when, still half asleep, I flipped on the TV only to find the crack team of Regis Philbin and Kathie Lee Gifford staring back at me.
\nWhen I turned in the night before, it was sure in the knowledge that Live with Regis & Kathie Lee hadn\u2019t been on the air for at least 15 years after Ms. Gifford signed off and replaced with Kelly Ripa. Had I been a betting man, I would have also put money on the idea that Regis himself had retired a few years previously as well.
\nSo, the sight of them through bleary eyes made me momentarily question whether I had been in some sort of deep sleep, coma, or fugue state for the previous 15-odd years or whether my sleep had somehow transcended the time-space continuum.
\nThen, last week, there was another flash \u2013 this time thanks to my clock radio.
\nMy clock radio is normally set to what my contemporaries has described as \u201cold fart\u201d music. My argument is so-called \u201cold fart\u201d music is less jarring to wake up to than the Top 40, but argument went swiftly out the window when it clicked on at 7 a.m., to a full array of Christmas music.
\nYes, apparently the early, still unusually balmy days of fall, still not out of Thanksgiving\u2019s shadow, were indeed \u201cthe most wonderful time of the year.\u201d
\nNeedless to say, it did not make for the most wonderful of mornings, and getting one\u2019s bearings took a few seconds longer than usual.
\nSince then, the shadow of Christmas itself seems to be taking centre stage everywhere you look.
\nHallowe\u2019en is little over two weeks away, but the Christmas deals are flying left and right. Dollar store shelves are groaning under the weight of gift wrap, balls and garlands. Whether you like it or not, everyone seems determined to get into the Christmas spirit \u2013 and Aurora is no exception.
\nSure, applications continue to be accepted ahead of next month\u2019s Santa Under the Stars Parade, that is relatively small potatoes. Councillor Mrakas, to pick but one example, has offered a grand vision for an outdoor Christmas Market, partly inspired by the wildly successful Christmas Market that has become a hallmark of Toronto\u2019s Distillery District.
\nAt first blush, my initial reaction was one of scepticism because his vision was (and remains) one for Library Square and, let\u2019s face it, nothing moves swiftly on that stretch of Victoria Street.
\nA similar venture to Toronto\u2019s Christmas Market would naturally mean the buildings on site would have to go, but these concerns were significantly tempered by the Councillor when he said this was a Christmas market that could start small, grow accordingly, and would not necessarily be contingent on the buildings meeting the wrecking ball, as staff hope, sometime this November.
\nThe Christmas Market idea was one which gained the wide support of most of Council, with the one voice of dismay coming from Mayor Geoff Dawe.
\n\u201cI am supportive of the concept, [but] I am not supportive of the name because, quite frankly, I don\u2019t feel it is inclusive,\u201d said Mayor Dawe on an event with the word \u201cChristmas\u201d in the title. \u201cI will support the concept, but that is just who I am and how I think.\u201d
\nFrom where I sit in the press gallery at Town Hall, I have a perfect view of the north side of the Council table and that night I can say with absolute certainty that there were a few puzzled reactions to that statement, however well intentioned it was.
\nAdmittedly, I could feel my face contorting into a similar state of puzzlement, in spite of myself. There are, after all, several Town-sponsored events associated with holidays stemming from obvious religious tradition from the Easter egg hunt which is literally called an \u201cEaster Egg Hunt\u201d (Mark your calendars for Saturday, March 31, 2018, while we\u2019re on the subject) to the \u201cSanta Under the Stars\u201d parade whose star attraction is a jolly man in red velvet who works day and night with his elves to deliver Christmas presents.
\nInclusion from a religious and secular standpoint is, in my opinion, a noble goal but it can only go so far before it starts to come off as mawkish.
\nBut going in the other direction can have the same effect.
\nGiven last month\u2019s conversation over the Christmas Market, my once contorted-and-now-relaxed face experienced a twitch upward in the vicinity of my eyebrows when looking at the agenda for next Tuesday\u2019s Council meeting.
\nOn it is a motion from Councillor Harold Kim on the Town\u2019s popular annual Tree Lighting Ceremony.
\n\u201cWhereas the Tree Lighting Ceremony, held annually at Town Hall, is well known to be a Christmas Tree; and whereas, when the ceremony began in 2005, the word \u2018Christmas\u2019 was not included for reasons unknown; now therefore be it hereby resolved that the annual \u2018Tree Lighting Ceremony\u2019 be called the \u2018Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony\u2019 beginning with the 2017 Christmas Season,\u201d reads the Councillor\u2019s motion.
\nNow, don\u2019t get me wrong; I have in this very space expressed my opinion (contrary, for those keeping score) on those in other municipalities who have moved away from calling a Christmas tree a \u201cChristmas tree\u201d in favour of the arguably more inclusive \u201cHoliday Tree.\u201d Call it what you want, but is anyone in any doubt over the roots of a blazing evergreen being firmly in Christmas\u2019 camp?
\nThis idea, however well-meaning, simply seems, in my opinion, overkill.
\n In fact, the very words in this motion point to it stating the obvious in that it is already \u201cwell known to be a Christmas tree.\u201d I don\u2019t believe the residents of Aurora need this spelled out for them.
\nSecondly, the motion states that since its inception 12 years ago, the word \u201cChristmas\u201d was \u201cnot included for reasons unknown.\u201d Perhaps the reasons have not been explicitly stated, but I don\u2019t think it takes the vivid imagination of a MENSA member to figure out the reason.
\nThirdly, as the motion states, this annual family tradition has simply been called the \u201cTree Lighting Ceremony\u201d from the outset.
\nHad it once been called a \u201cChristmas Tree Lighting Ceremony\u201d and had the C-word lopped off at the behest of overzealous social justice warriors, it might be a different story but, as so many are fond of saying around the Council table, if it ain\u2019t broke, why fix it?<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir Do you ever emerge from a deep, deep sleep and, due to one circumstance or another, think you have drastically overslept? Oddly enough, this is a feeling recently that is probably a bit more than my fair share. Last year, for instance, after a particularly long night before, I decided to give […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[29,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columns","category-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-4RR","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-20 13:07:18","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18715\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}