Holiday bliss

Here we are, on the other side of Thanksgiving.

Sure, the days around Thanksgiving are often slow on the entertainment end, but as the year winds to a close, our options only grow. Christmas is still a month away, but as is the trend in recent years, it seems like everywhere you go the garlands, wreaths, lights and trees are there. I think it started about Halloween.

The holiday entertainers held off for a bit, but not too long.

Starting this week the holiday entertainment really picks up, with concerts and theater productions happening here in Cape Girardeau and places like Carbondale, Ill., Paducah, Ky., and St. Louis.

If you want to read about your options for live holiday entertainment, you can find them inside.

So what is it about the holidays that makes us demand to be entertained? After all, going outside is hardly fun this time of year, as our recent cold snap, the season's first, has shown us.

And traffic, let's not get started there.

Who can really say definitively what the answer to the question is? All I can think is that there's just some overarching vibe, some, for lack of a better term, "spirit," that infects most of us around the holidays.

Maybe we start to think a little less about the hassle of our busy, everyday lives of work and school and whatever gets in the way of us remembering that we're people, not some weird machines programmed to perform mundane tasks. We start to think more about the commonality of being human.

At least that's what I hope happens. Then again, maybe I'm not realistic about the holidays. I'd like to think I am.

And our holiday entertainment options tap into that feeling of togetherness. They bring us together to celebrate the bright aspects of life, like hope and faith and family. Whether we're religious or secular, it seems all of us can enjoy something about the holidays, from going out to the bar with a few old friends you don't see other times of the year to listening to a masterful performance of Handel's "Messiah," there's something to do for everyone.

So be sure to have fun over the next month. Relax and take in something, anything, that reminds you of the simple joys. We'll try to make sure you know what your options are.