Every year, the lights go up a little earlier. Every year, more people ignore the ghosts and jack-o'-lanterns of Halloween, sail right past the Pilgrims and turkeys of Thanksgiving and proceed directly to Christmas. The first house on our block was decorated in October, even before the leaves were down. The stores, of course, are much worse offenders. I was still wearing a T-shirt when the seasonal aisles in our local Kmart came alive with fake greenery and blinking lights. Christmas seems to fill an entire quarter of the year, and the day is fast approaching when back-to-school sales will...