How to appropriately transition from Thanksgiving to Christmas
Chapman students are bringing out the Christmas cheer before putting away the pumpkins this year. Photo illustration by TIFFANY LE, Staff Photographer
A turkey with a side of mistletoe is how some people choose to serve up their Thanksgiving dinner. Others hold on to the mistletoe until after the fall festivities end, while some will skip the turkey altogether and dive straight into the winter season.
The age-old debate continues this year, as it does every year, of whether it is appropriate to decorate for Christmas before Thanksgiving, or if Thanksgiving should be properly celebrated in all of its autumnal glory before the string lights and glitter ornaments are hung with care. Luckily, Chapman students said it is possible to get the best of both worlds and not have to pick between the two.
Caitlin Couch, a senior creative and cultural industries major, said she often waits until after Thanksgiving to decorate, but this year she thought some Christmas cheer was needed a bit earlier.
“Morale has been a little bit low on campus right now,” Couch said. “And I don't know if I'm the only one feeling odd. It's probably stressful with Thanksgiving, finals and everything coming to a wrap so early. That's why I decorated super early this year.”
To transition from autumn to Christmas, Couch said it’s simply just switching from a white and orange fall color scheme adorned with leaves to a red and green, winter wonderland color palette, complete with snow. She also said it’s perfectly fine to hang up rustic jingle bells and pull out the sparkly Christmas tree pillows while the pumpkins are still scattered around the house.
Couch told The Panther scents are one of her favorite, subtler ways to modestly transition into the holiday season. During the fall, she had a stash of cinnamon broomsticks from Trader Joe’s on deck. Now, she’s switching out the scent for pine cones to get into a winter state of mind.
Tatum Foulger, a junior English major, resides in Costa Rica when she is not at college. However, her parents are from the U.S., and still enjoy honoring Thanksgiving before moving on to Christmas. Nevertheless, all her neighbors start decorating for Christmas as early as October and completely skip the fall embellishments, even though fall and winter are dry seasons in Costa Rica.
“(The seasons) kind of blend into each other in that sense,” Foulger said. “For winter, we don't have leaves changing colors or leaves falling off the tree.”
To get into the Christmas spirit without forsaking Thanksgiving, Foulger listens to Christmas music with her roommates. However, the garlands and lights stay in their boxes until after Thanksgiving.
“Right after Halloween ended, (my roommates) were like, ‘O.K., now time for Christmas music,’” Foulger said.
Alessia Alum, a junior political science major, said she normally decorates after Thanksgiving so she can appreciate the little pumpkins in hay barrels and massive corn stocks she puts on the pillars outside her house. However, Alum thinks a good way to transition into Christmas is to create a bright atmosphere inside with neutral-toned Christmas lights.
“You could incorporate lights into both fall and also the whole Christmas season,” Alum said. “Keeping the house bright may be a way to just sort of incorporate both elements without completely having to skip the period.”
Although the age-long debate will probably never be solved about when the appropriate time to start decorating is, it is possible to overlap decor, because the holidays are about being cozy anyway. Whether that’s in the form of lighting a pine or cinnamon scent, it doesn’t matter, as long as you are “merry and bright.”