Downtown Davis kicks off the holiday season in style tonight by honoring over 40 years of tradition with its annual tree-lighting ceremony and festive activities at the E Street Plaza.

Ah, winter break. Time to spend half the day sleeping and the other half being slowly eaten by your couch in front of “Jersey Shore” reruns, right?

All right, I’ve bitten my tongue long enough. Usually I prefer to avoid the heaviest firefights on campus, having plenty to do teaching world history to my seventh graders and taking my own classes in the afternoons. But I am sensing a very limited array of voices on a particular subject, and I really must comment.

I estimate that 80 percent of you have no idea my Christmas started last night. I didn’t dig through a stocking for that trendy new piece of electronics or open a greeting card that sung to me. I’ve never tried eggnog and my grandma never bought me a sweater I felt was too itchy. I still don’t know what a partridge is, but I’m confident that if my true love really knew me, she wouldn’t waste her shekels getting me one. On my first day of Christmas, I played a lacrosse game at a community college.

It doesn’t matter whether you hate him or love him, no one can deny that Kanye West knows how to make a stellar record.

Halcyon is defined as tranquil, peaceful and carefree. In this sense Halcyon Digest seems like it should be a musical volume that exudes calm. But despite its optimistic name, dark undertones ride many of the songs on Deerhunter’s fourth album.

For a film whose cast includes legends such as Christina Aguilera and Cher, this soundtrack is, to be polite, underwhelming.

Can you imagine deeply saturated images of atmospheric clouds and vast sonic landscapes inching closer? There’s something about the works of Kronos Quartet and Icelandic band Sigur Rós that amplifies human emotion on an immeasurable scale.

I know a lot of you are expecting me to preach to you about how lazy you are and how much you could help the environment if you’d just put in a little more work. Well, this isn’t one of those times. There are a ton of variables that go into determining which is greener – washing dishes by hand or with a machine. So let’s take a quick look.

This week in Davis: Hinterland; University Chorus; “Sticky Business: Art of the Honeybee.”

TODAY: Student Services and Fees Administrative Advisory Meeting; American Red Cross Club Meeting; Celebrate Hanukkah with JSUCD: Day 2.

Who to watch: Junior Hana Asano has been one of the more unselfish players for the Aggies this season.