The holiday season never seems to end.

If we did in our homes what merchandisers do in their stores we would put up our Christmas trees and lights on the house during Labor Day weekend.

Kids would grow up confused about whether Santa arrives on Halloween or Christmas.

But with the arrival of Thanksgiving weekend we are officially into the traditional holiday season. So it’s time to take a moment right now to remember the importance of moderation.

I believe in taking all things in moderation. I especially believe in moderation when it comes to taking things in moderation.

This is the season to eat, drink and be merry for in January we diet. And February. And March. And April. I don’t know why it takes twice as long to loose the weight as it does to gain it in the first place.

The one thing I will certainly not take in moderation during the holidays is tradition. This is the time of year when we like to do everything the same, following our lifelong family traditions.

Young woman: "I’m sorry. I love you but we can’t get married.’‘

Young man: "Is it because of our different religions, because I want 10 children and you want one, because you’re a Democrat and I’m a Republican?’‘

Young woman: "No. We could work those things out. It’s because at Thanksgiving my family eats simple bread stuffing and your family eats oyster stuffing. Can’t you see this will never work? We’ll end up spending the holidays every year in a stuffing argument.’‘

Woe be onto the daughter-in-law who tries to introduce something new when her husband’s whole family gathers at her house for their traditional Thanksgiving dinner.

There are many traditions I hold dear and even sacred during the holidays: The traditional falling off the ladder while putting up the tree; the traditional hours spent untangling lines of Christmas lights that I later discover don’t even work; the traditional spilling of tree sap water on the carpet; the traditional having no idea what to buy for my wife.

One of my favorite holiday traditions is a place. It’s a store. And the store is Marshall Field’s on State Street in Chicago. Don’t even bother telling me Macy’s bought it and renamed it Macy’s. It was wrong for a New York store to rename a Chicago store and I refuse to accept this. I’m upset with Macy’s for doing this.

To me the store on State Street will always be Marshall Field’s. When I was a boy every year our family went downtown to Marshall Field’s to eat in the Walnut Room beneath the big Christmas tree there.

This is a long tradition. My mother had gone to the Walnut Room with her mother when she was a girl. And in time when my sister, brother and I married our children went there, too. Our grandchildren have eaten Mrs. Herring’s Chicken Pot Pie under the Walnut Room Christmas tree, just as people have for more than 100 years. The tree in the Walnut Room today is 45 feet tall and it’s artificial. But I can remember the days when it was a real tree. To a young boy it looked 100 feet tall and it was the image of Christmas excitement.

I was at the Marshall Field’s Store on State Street last weekend and visited the Walnut Room. It was filled with happy families doing just what our family has done. I could see people sitting at tables where I once sat watching Christmas sparkle off the shinny tree in the eyes of our children and grandchildren.

We all love traditions at this time of year because they bring back wonderful memories, memories of places and people, some of them long gone.

Have no moderation this holiday season in your traditions and memories. They are the vanilla glaze frosting that links our past to our future. I started my holiday traditions first thing Thursday morning. I turned on the TV and watched the New York City Marshall Field’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in front of the Marshall Field’s Store at Herald Square.

Don’t even bother tell me it’s Macy’s. I know that.

But this is my tradition and I’ll call it what I want.

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