Christmas in July.

Cool idea for these sizzling summer days.

We started observing Christmas in July many hot summers ago.

Started like this:

We collect several items and we search for some of them on the Goodwill online auction site.

One day we were electronically rambling around on the site and came across an offer for Christmas cards.

Must have been too hot to think of Christmas; no one had bid.

So we did.

Our bid not only was the highest bid but it also was the onliest bid.

Cost of the cards was so low we think maybe they were paying us to take the cards off Goodwill’s hands.

The shipping charge was much higher than the cost of the cards.

Next thing you know, the guy in the brown truck unloaded a whole front porch full of Christmas cards at our house.

We have enough Christmas cards for all of the Christmases to come.

So we started sending out Merry Christmas in July cards.

You know, beat the December rush.

Got some quizzical responses.

Like maybe some of the recipients thought the summer heat had cooked our brain.

But, the way we figured it, if businesses can have Christmases in July sales and such, then why can’t we personally observe Christmas in July?

So, to this day, we have the postal worker more or less become our Santa and deliver our Christmas cards in July.

But our Goodwill card delivery is just one of our three-pronged Christmas in July approach.

The second approach also started years ago when we noticed an abundance of Christmas decorative items offered at estate sales, which we also go to in search of collectibles.

Christmas decorative items for cents on the dollar. One nice estate sale lady even beseeched us to take all of her Christmas items. For free. Take them, please. Get them out of her sight.

Bargain hunter that we are, we began to collect them.

Until our house runneth over.

At Christmas, we placed some of the more colorful and elaborate items atop a large storage chest.

After each Christmas, we keep saying we will take them down and store them until the next Christmas.

But we don’t.

So, each July, we have our Christmas in July display already in place. As well as all of the other months, of course.

Our third way of observing Christmas in July?

A CD of Christmas music at the ready in the family vehicle.

It contains a baker’s dozen holiday favorites, from Joy to the World  to  The First Noel.

So while we are driving along on these thermal July days and ol’ sol is doing its best to cook and bake and broil and melt us and our car, we can at least mentally cool off to the accompaniment of relaxing instrumental renditions of our Christmas music favorites.

In the parlance of the younger folk:

Cool, man, cool.

So, Merry Christmas to all and to all a good July.

Put the air conditioner on extremely cold, sit back and warm to the Christmas in July moment.

And have a cool, cool Yule, y’all.

Roger Summers is a journalist and essayist who spends time in Texas, New Mexico and England and in a world of curiosity and creativity. He can be reached at wrsummers@sbcglobal.net.