Every year it seems like the Christmas decorations come out and the Christmas planning starts a little bit earlier. The controversy around deciding an appropriate date to start celebrating Christmas comes at a time when families and friends are supposed to come together for the holidays to celebrate. The most popular times to kick off the Christmas season are right after Halloween, right after Thanksgiving, or some time in December. Those who really get into the Christmas spirit might even bring out the Santa decorations before Halloween.
With all this in mind, I have decided that the best and only time to start celebrating Christmas is Nov. 1st. The day after Halloween, I can be found blasting Mariah Carey’s timeless Christmas hit “All I Want for Christmas Is You” for the first time of the year. As soon as November starts, I go full Christmas mode: the sweaters come on, the lights come out, and the music gets played.
I personally need tons of build-up to fully immerse myself in Christmas culture before Dec. 25th. Complaints about the rush and chaos of the holidays can easily be solved by simply starting to celebrate and prepare earlier. November 1st is a perfect time to start buying presents and putting up decorations. Luckily, the Starbucks holiday cups and Hallmark holiday movies tend to come out towards the beginning of Nov. each year, making this the ideal time to start celebrating.
For those “Thanksgiving is a holiday, too” people, I put my Christmas spirit on pause for the Thursday that Thanksgiving falls on, but it’s necessary to start celebrating Christmas before this for both the convenience and enjoyment. Thanksgiving celebrations cannot last more than a day because there’s no music or cute decorations to put up. There isn’t any gingerbread house building or cookie decorating or elf finding during Thanksgiving.
However, it is impossible to skip over Halloween with Christmas celebrations. Pre-Halloween is just too early to start getting into the Christmas spirit. We’re sure to be tired of our Christmas playlists if they start getting played anytime before November. Plus, October has to be reserved for costume-planning and candy-eating.
The Grinches out there that postpone celebrations to Dec. 23rd or even Christmas Eve are missing out on the true joy and spirit that surrounds Christmas. The best way to make sure that the joy surrounding the holidays is truly felt is to start celebrating earlier than December.
December 25th is a huge production that unifies people and cheers up even the most stressed out high schoolers. To have enough time to bake Christmas cookies, buy Christmas presents, and get in the Christmas mood, it is crucial that celebrations and preparations start at the beginning of November.
