Happy holidaze! Now get your behind away from the Internet, have a real life!

We’re in a pretty intense holiday weekend; not only is it Christmas Eve and Day, it’s also the beginning of the Eight Days of Hanukkah and we’ll soon be in Kwanzaa.

Best wishes to you if you happened to have chance to pass this holiday decoration on your way out of town for the weekend. Photographs by Gregory Tejeda

A holiday for just about any faith or occasion one would want to celebrate. And boy, do we need it.

FOR WE WENT through a hellish campaign cycle that particularly dragged out the ugliest of tensions that separate us in our society. We definitely need something all around to alleviate such hostile feelings – particularly for those who saw the final election results come out this week and still can’t get over the fact that Hillary Clinton could clean Donald Trump’s clock by some 2.9 million votes.

And still lose!!!

So it is with even stronger-than-usual feelings that I say anybody actually reading this commentary on Saturday or Sunday needs to get a life. Log off the computer or whatever device you happen to be using to access the Internet and go do something in the real world. Celebrate. Be merry, jolly or downright joyful.

There is nothing that will be in the blogosphere during this holiday weekend of any great significance that you can’t wait until Monday to read all about it.

ALTHOUGH FOR THOSE of you who just need to see something visual before logging off for the day, I’m digging out a couple of audio/video links on off-beat Christmas-themed songs.

It's also the beginning of Hanukkah on Saturday. Or does mentioning that fact constitute "war" on X-mas (whose spelling that way is the truly offensive act).

I always get a kick out of hearing Chuck Berry’s take on “Merry Christmas, Baby.” I always find Celia Cruz’ Spanish-language version of “Jingle Bells” (“Soy Feliz en la Navidad,” when translated en Español) to be cheerful.

Then there’s always that old cartoon take of “Hardrock, Coco and Joe” that many of us Chicago natives remember seeing as kids while watching “Ray Rayner and Friends” on television just before the holidays.

I pick it because it was always a particular favorite of my brother Christopher, whose lack of presence in my life the past year continues to leave a sore spot for me emotionally.

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