Do you remember Andy Williams singing that? (Well, on the record my family owned, he was the one singing it ... and my sister Mary Ellen would always say "Don't Andy Williams and Tony Bennett look like twins?" Which only made the rest of us wonder if there had been some mix-up bringing her home from the hospital as a baby. But I digress.)

Anyway, as I'm writing this, it's about a week after Halloween, and Thanksgiving is a couple of weeks away. When you are reading this, it will be getting into Christmastime, and the New Year. For me, a person who loves holidays, this really is a wonderful time of year. I look forward to all of the anticipation, hustle and bustle, decorations, the whole bit.

So why are there people who seem to be determined to make me feel guilty because I enjoy these things? Invariably, at this time of year, people complain that the retailers try to push the holiday season onto the public too soon (they do). They point out that many people who celebrate Christmas, do not see any religious meaning to it (they don't), and that it is too commercial (yes, it is, or can be). I guess the thing that amazes me is not that everyone doesn't enjoy the holiday season, but that they seem to be completely incapable of just ignoring it if they don't like it or don't approve of the way others celebrate it.

Now keep in mind that the people I am talking about are often experts at ignoring other things that they encounter more than once a year for a few weeks at a time. All of us are. When I was growing up, I was pretty much able to ignore any sentence that my parents uttered beginning with the words "When I was growing up, during the Depression ..."; I tend to ignore the existence of people I don't like, unless I absolutely have to deal with them. I have absolutely no problem at all ignoring any movie featuring any number of actors and actresses that I don't like (and there's quite a list!).

So many of the people I know who cannot ignore the holiday season or aspects of it that may bother or overwhelm them, have no problem ignoring other events that are part of their daily lives. They can walk past a homeless person on the street twice every day. They can ignore traffic lights, either as drivers or pedestrians. They have no problem not acknowledging the fact that someone else may have been in line ahead of them. Yet they are completely unable to ignore something they allegedly don't like.

Maybe you're thinking, "Yeah, but people like you force us to pay attention." I apologize if that is what people think I do. I will say that when I know that someone doesn't like any holiday for any reason, I try to keep that in mind, and not go on and on about how I can't wait until it gets here. But I refuse to feel guilty because I do look forward to it. If I hear a Christmas carol in a department store the week before Halloween, I ignore it. If I think certain aspects of the holiday are too commercial, I do the best I can to discount them or ignore them, so I don't feel manipulated. If I think some people don't appreciate the true meaning of Christmas, I may think it's too bad, but it's none of my business why/how/if people celebrate anything, so I ignore it.

If you don't like the holidays, that's fine. Fortunately there is no law saying you have to like them. You can even let me know, and I'll do my best to avoid the topic altogether. But feel free to ignore the whole season if that makes you happy.

If you enjoy the holidays, have fun! I know I do, and will. (I even have an entire Christmas wardrobe, I must warn you!)