When November hits, there always seems to be a conversation or should I say, debate, among the masses on when to put up the Christmas tree. The unofficial “official” start of the holiday season lies somewhere within this month. Some like the tree up on November 1st, others the day after Thanksgiving, while some wait until December.
If the tree debate wasn’t controversial enough, in recent years we’ve also started to see an expansion of when holiday decor starts showing up in stores. Halloween debuts July 5th; Christmas sometime in early fall. There are a lot of opinions on this, and you’ll see them all, especially on social media! If you are a fan of Halloween and/or Christmas, you may love that holiday decor is out so early. You may even adore both of these holidays and still feel like each should get its own specific timeframe for new decor and decorating. Maybe you just aren’t ready to start preparing for Halloween in the middle of the summer.
However you feel, I think there is value in each take on the debate of holiday timing. The first being- do whatever makes you happy! If you love Halloween, buy all the new pumpkins and spooky decor starting in July, put your Halloween decorations up in August! If you love Christmas, put that tree up whenever you like and keep it up well into the new year. Especially in these current times, when a lot of things are awful in this world, if it brings you even a small amount of joy to use a spooky coffee mug in July, who cares what the calendar says. (I may or may not have started using my spooky mugs in July…)
On the other hand, giving each season its proper timing allows us to be present in the current moment. Instead of skipping over things and pushing time to the next big holiday, if we follow the calendar, we can stay mindful of the present. Rather than thinking of cooler weather and fall in July, we can savor the long, warm summer days. It also allows us to savor the moment when it *is* time to celebrate Halloween or Christmas based on what our calendar says. When we know we only have a month to dedicate to our favorite holiday, we can (try to) slow down and soak up the enjoyment because it is finite.
Time seems to fly by quicker and quicker as I get older. I do a mixture of expanding and limiting the holidays. I definitely expand Halloween and Christmas since these are two of my most favorite times of the year. As I mentioned in my October musing, Halloween is my favorite holiday! The last two years I have decorated as soon as I can in September. I used to wait until October 1st, but a couple of Octobers ago, I wasn’t home to enjoy the decorations as I traveled a lot that month. It made me sad to take down the decorations in November when I didn’t feel like I had enough time to enjoy them.
I used to be a strict day after Thanksgiving Christmas decorator. My plan of action was to take down Halloween in November, leave the pumpkins for Thanksgiving, then decorate for Christmas on Black Friday (instead of hitting the stores because a crazy busy shopping experience is literally my worst nightmare). Then last year, I had no energy to do any Christmas decorating, at all. Which turned out to be a good thing, since I spent most of the holiday season driving back and forth to my aunt’s while I dealt with a major plumbing catastrophe at my house. This year though my plan is to put the tree up in early November and then the rest of the Christmas decorations will follow on Black Friday.
At the end of the day, there are no steadfast rules we need to live by when it comes to enjoying the things we love that bring us joy, especially when it is something as harmless as holiday decorations! I say put your Christmas tree up in August and leave it there until March. Read spooky books all year. Drink pumpkin spice lattes in April. Eat corn on the cob instead of corn casserole in November. Save your Cadbury eggs for August.
We have way too many other things to worry about than being “seasonally appropriate” so do what brings you joy. I know I will.