Happy Presentation/Purification/Candlemas!

Mary Jane at Sacred Miscellany has a lovely post on it.

http://sacredmiscellany.typepad.com/sacredmiscellany

Me? I got nothin', just personal reaction.
I love Christmas, I love everything about it, even the purely secular aspects.
While I understood, as a kid, that it is not only the Forces of Capitalism that want to jump the gun on its celebration, I also agreed with those (usually religious forces,) doing battle to give the deliciously pregnant season of Advent its due.
We always had an Advent wreath, we gathered as a family and did scripture readings before we lit the candles and ate dinner, we didn't put the tree up very early and left it up until Epiphany at least, we had various Advent calendars... but the Christmas season seemed horribly, unfairly short, and not just because vacation seemed over too soon.
I remember seeing some Catholic churches taking down their wreaths and garland before they'd even celebrated (the now ON THE WRONG DAY, except it wasn't this year,) Feast of the Three Kings.
It seemed terribly sad, and old people told me, oh the Christmas Season used to be longer. (You see, I don't remember the calender changes.)
One year, before i had ascended to my lofty position and was just a choir member another parish asked our choir to join in a Christmas concert and Carol fest.
Huh??!?$?^?? In February?
And it was explained how in the minds of some, mostly older folk, the season finished, (as all seasons ought,) at the 40 day mark.
As I learned more about the changes in the Liturgical year, I began to believe more and more that a HUGE mistake was made.
The human impulse is to try to stretch out good times, and make them last, and if you lop often the Christmas season at one end all that celebratory energy is going to pop out the other end.
It is the fault of those who insist on taking the poinsettias away from the Madonna's altar the first week of January that we hear that other Madonna nasally crooning Santa Baby in the malls the first week of November.
If TPTB really wanted to get the PIPs from improperly anticipating the Nativity, they'd give them more of what they want ON THE OTHER SIDE of the Holyday.
And then, more recently I learned that some places, such as St John Cantius in Chicago leave the Nativity decor, the manger and trees and lights up until the old ending date.
Okay, but they are a bit "trad', and use the old calender for some of their liturgy.
But it was an excuse, so we started leaving our tree and manger at home up until Feb. 2 as well.
But this year I learned the VATICAN  leaves the manger up until February, the announcer for Vatican Radio said today during the broadcast of the Mass of the Presentation that THIS is the
"official" end of the Christmas season.
So what's going on here, and are we doing it wrong in this country?
Anyway, I'll put things away tomorrow.
And tonight, at Mass I'll play that improv on Divinum Mysterium.