The holiday debate: When is it too soon to decorate for Christmas?
Photo Courtesy of AI
It's that time of year again; the holiday season is upon us. When everyone begins to prepare for Thanksgiving, there's a question half the country is asking in mid-November, and the other half doesn’t want to hear yet. Can I start decorating for Christmas yet?
Don’t get me wrong; I am also excited to have my neighborhood and the surrounding ones all lit up bright and colorful. I'm just as ready to pull out my Trader Joe's hot cocoa mix and binge-watch “Home Alone” and “The Polar Express” as anyone else. But is this much holiday spirit valid before Thanksgiving?
This debate has been ongoing, I’m assuming, since the latter half of the 20th century. It’s even stirring up drama in my friend group because half of us are ready to get right into Christmas, but the other half can’t wait to go home and stuff their faces with turkey, mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce all night and then put their trees up in the days following.
Personally, my mom has already put the tree up in our house, but I suspect that she's excited for my brother and me, both college students, to come home for break, so she's getting started to fill the time.
I've heard a side of this story that goes a bit like this: I am decorating for fall/Thanksgiving right after Halloween, and then once it hits mid-November, the Christmas decor comes out. This gives you enough time to enjoy the fall festivities and turn your home into a winter wonderland.
However, the strict tradition and general rule of thumb would be to start decorating after Thanksgiving. But in modern times, this idea doesn't seem to stick anymore. It felt fun coming home for Thanksgiving and seeing a Christmas tree, especially since it's hard to decorate while at school, so I don't get to enjoy it for as long anymore.
Overall, if you want to wait to decorate, go for it! But also, let everyone else rock if they want to keep the Christmas lights up till January. When I started writing this, I was going to say to wait, but I've realized the holidays are indeed about spreading joy and spending time with loved ones, so what's the point of fighting over whether someone has a turkey or a snowman in front of their house?