Sign of the times "CLOSING".

I was in a store yesterday and I realized that they were playing Christmas music. At first I was thinking they must be nuts, then I started to realize that it's the middle of November already! Already? Middle of November already!!! How is this possible, time is just speeding by. The Christmas music had me thinking (as usual) about the way Christmas was so magical in my younger days. One of the first signs were the arrivals of two cherished Christmas catalogs. The Sears Christmas wish book and the Eaton's Christmas book. I believe Eaton's was a Canadian only store, it was an everything store, much like Sears. In my parents time, you could order a stove, sweater, furniture, horse harness and even a house. The house had some assembly required, this is not a joke, I have been in one. Leading up to Christmas, Eaton's also had a Santa Claus parade, it was tradition for us to watch it on tv every year. My sister and I agreed, Eaton's definitely had a better toy section in its catalog and we went over and over those pages of toys, imagining finding some of them under the tree. Sadly times change, the way people shopped changed and it was the end of an era, Eaton's went out of business. The city of Toronto saved the Christmas parade however, it still runs every year to this day. ............................................. Sears became our "go to store" for most things Christmas and it has been that way ever since. Again, times change and how people shop have changed. Sears has been struggling in Canada and has announced that they are closing their doors for good. It's almost unbelievable to me on one level but on another level I could see it happening. Even myself, I hardly shop there anymore. I will miss having a variety all in one store, from books to socks. I also will miss the fact they had items in many different sizes and colors, unlike most stores these days with the one size fits all policy or teal is the color of the year. Now in December it's almost like looking through an old store yearbook when I unpack the decorations, many of the ornaments came from stores long forgotten and I find myself showing people the boxes saying "remember these guys, remember this". My sister remarked that it's another tradition lost. I shouldn't be that surprised, about two years ago I was doing some last minute shopping on the 23rd, normally I avoid doing that but because of work, I was in a mall the eve of Christmas eve. I was so surprised with how thin the number of shoppers seemed to be. I remarked this to a cashier and she said that because of online shopping, she sees the crowds getting smaller and smaller each year. Maybe one day malls will start to close down as well. In the near future everyone will just do their holiday shopping online, convenient in many ways, no crowds, running around or stress. I enjoy the shopping part, a little hustle and bustle is part of the season to me and it would feel like something was missing if that were to completely change. Just sitting at my laptop ordering items seems too sterile. I just hope they don't figure out some way to send that awful "elevator music" version of Christmas songs over my smartphone.