#21 A Hint of Christmas

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Halloween is over and that means that there are only about fifty more hinting days until Christmas. I personally began my hinting campaign in late July. There’s no sense in leaving these things to the last minute.

The important thing about hinting is that it has to be subtle.

For some perverse reason, family members refuse to buy the gifts you really want. You could stand in the middle of the living room daily and say, “I’d really like an argyle sweater for Christmas,” but it wouldn’t do any good. You could take out full-page ads in large metropolitan newspapers explaining that somebody might get hurt if you don’t get your sweater, and it would make your family all the more determined to buy you something else.

On the other hand, if you only once mention that you kind of like the Beer Barrel Polka, you’ll find a dozen CDs by Yodel and the Accordion Meisters under the tree.

That’s why you have to hint.

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In this episode, there’s a running gag about an argyle sweater. You can learn about the origins of the argyle pattern in this Wikipedia article.