One of my favorite decorations, this Santa was a gift from one of my dearest friends.
Oh, do I love Christmas. The trees! The lights! The cheesy Lifetime movies! All of it.
Just not yet.
For the love of all that is magical about this season, turn off your Christmas lights and stop playing your Charley Pride Christmas in My Hometown album. Now.
(Yes, I do have Charley Pride’s Christmas in My Hometown. And several other Charley selections. He reminds my of my childhood and I love him. You, with your Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays by *NSYNC, do not judge me.)
Back to the decorations. Can you just wait a few more days, please?
Give the other seasons their due. Could we please not have Christmas trees and Jack-o-Lanterns on display at the same time? Is that too much to ask?
I am fired up. Fired up, I tell you.
This is my issue: the magic gets diluted when your yard is all blinking, flashing festivity before Thanksgiving. And the retailers? Don’t get me started.
Starbucks? That red cup breaks my heart. Save it for Black Friday. How about this for some holiday cheer? Come to Starbucks during your Black Friday shopping and get a discounted cup of coffee in the red cup.
Now that? That would be exciting. Thanksgiving is over and we’re kicking off Christmas. Wahoo! Red Cups!
Just a thought. Are you looking for a new marketing person, Starbucks? I’m your girl. I got ideas, baby. That Black Friday/Red Cup thing is just the beginning.
Where were we? Christmas decorations. That’s it.
I am not unreasonable. No, I’m not. I know that time is precious and we don’t all have the luxury of spending Thanksgiving weekend decorating our homes and businesses for the holidays. I get it. My family, just for example, is putting up our outside lights today. Ooo, did you feel that? The collective oh-she-is-such-a-hypocrite-air-being-sucked-out-of-the-room sound?
Stick with me.
We are hanging the lights on the house today. But we are not turning them on. Do you hear me? Not.
We’re doing some pre-work because this is our one chance to get it done. Those lights, however, will remain dark and will not start shining until Friday night. After Thanksgiving. Period.
I don’t claim to understand the ins and outs of what huge retail chains and shopping centers, malls, etc. go through to coordinate their holiday decorating and sales plans. I know it’s not as simple as waiting until the day after Thanksgiving. Again, I am not unreasonable. Passionate, maybe. Unreasonable? No.
All I ask is that the whole ordeal be a little less in. your. face. until after Thanksgiving. Go ahead, get organized. Make a plan. Spread the word about your upcoming sales and holiday promotions. Just do it without screaming MERRY CHRISTMAS, HAPPY HOLIDAYS, FELIZ NAVIDAD, PLEASE COME BUY OUR PRODUCT NOW at us.
It’s not Merry Christmas-time, do you hear me?
It’s Happy Thanksgiving-time.
Can we please be in the moment and enjoy feeling thankful for a few days before we start rushing around with the decorating, shopping, cooking, eating madness that is Christmas?
Can we?
I wonder…
:: Does it bother you that retailers start ramming Christmas down your throats while you’re still stuffing Halloween candy down that throat?
:: When do you put up your holiday decorations?
:: Do you think I’m a Scrooge?
Lapsed homemaker. Looking to hire a full-time housekeeper who will work for the sheer joy of a job well done and free coffee. Interested parties, DM please. 
I am used to the pre-Thanksgiving Christmas Decorations. I don’t really like it, but it’s becoming normal.
However, I am not, and never will be, used to the pre-Halloween Christmas Decorations in the stores.
WHAT.THE.HECK.
It just makes me angry.
I wasn’t thrilled seeing Christmas stuff out during Halloween, but now, I’m excited that it’s everywhere. It also seems that everyone started decorating earlier than usual for Christmas this year. Even one of our radio stations that plays all Christmas music every day started 2 weeks early. They usually start the day after Thanksgiving!!
We usually decorate a few days after Thanksgiving, but my husband decided we’re decorating tonight.
Xmas is in December…seems reasonable to me that decorations go up in December!
Sale of decorations? I think after Halloween is fine for people to get ready and find deals. Also, my Thanksgiving is in October and even then, I don’t know anyone who decorates for Thanksgiving…we decorate for autumn. Thanksgiving just happens to fall in autumn. (Hee! Good one, right?)
Yes, it’s annoying to go to a store where one aisle has Halloween stuff on one side and Xmas stuff on the other. They COULD wait, couldn’t they?
I wrote about this exact same thing the other day.
My issue isn’t only that the early “celebrating” cheapens the thrill and excitement of the Christmas season. I hate the fact that Thanksgiving has been reduced to a stepping stone. A little break between Halloween and Christmas. I love Thanksgiving and I hate that it doesn’t feel special anymore.
I’m with you on this one, Missy. I love Christmas – everything from the decorations to the carols – but I do feel like the spirit of Thanksgiving (in the States, at least) is getting lost. So much for being thankful; it’s all about buying. I know the spirit of giving is important, too, but how about giving Thanksgiving its due too?
(Disclaimer–these are my own views and I’m not telling you what you should or shouldn’t think or do.)
You are funny, Missy. I believe since coming out with my holiday manifesto (i.e. that we don’t really celebrate holidays), I have chilled off on how I view holidays. For me, seeing holiday decorations and lights used to make me feel guilty. Thankfully, the guilt is gone and I can see the decorations and lights as just another part of the background. I think, too, that because I don’t watch TV, I don’t feel that constant pressure of retailers to get out and buy.
this post completely covers one of my MAJOR pet peeves. i LOVE Christmas, and i can’t wait to put up the tree, but by golly i’m going to wait until the day after Thanksgiving to do it! my scarecrows and pumpkins are the last of the fall decor on my street, but they’re STAYING there until after the last of the Harvest Holidays.
I hate it too!! All those around me who pay professionals to come decorate their houses are already fully festooned! It is a glittery Christmas bonanza at night.
My pumpkins are still up and will be up until after Thanksgiving!!!
I have, however, started using the “Kids, Santa knows if you’ve been naughty or nice” for a good couple weeks already. Come to think of it, I pulled that out before Halloween!
@Amy ~ Eat. Live. Laugh. Shop., Are you being serious? People pay professionals to decorate for holidays? oh. em. eff. gee. Never heard of such a thing!
Oh my – everyone around these parts (except me) pays for lights to be strung around their rooftop, garland around the entry and wreaths in every window. Pretty, but I just can’t compete with it!
I may opt for a single wreath this year!!!
Our decorations go up after Thanksgiving. Have you sent your Red Cups idea to Starbucks?! Cuz I think you’re on to something…
Seriously, I could not agree more. I may have been ranting about this very same topic, only to be accused of being a bit scrooge-like. But seriously. Perhaps this hugely dramatic Christmas overhaul starting seriously the minute the clocks strike November 1st is why people are less apt to be thankful and more in the “mememewantwantwant” mindset? Ugh.
Bah Humbug. At least, until Friday.
Agreed. Back in August HomeGoods had Christmas decorations. Now, I love HomeGoods, but August! Absurd. Just like I don’t want to see the Spring Fashions before I have even looked around for Fall, I don’t want to see a single Christmas decoration until the last of the turkey and stuffing have been consumed on Thanksgiving Day.
I’m with ya Missy. I love Christmas just as much as the next person but TWO weeks ago I saw the Christmas candy canes lining a neighbors yard.
What the What? Two weeks ago was Daylight savings time.
Come on people!!
I try to have all my Christmas decorations and tree up by December 15th. I don’t see the point in decorating before Thanksgiving, unless the turkey dinner is at my house.
Scrooge is cool, so you are all right by me. 😉
Here here!! No Christmas until at least Dec 1. I hate seeing it all so early. It just gets me stressed and freaked out about buying gifts :p
Visiting from Red Dress Club
Oh, you are SO not a Scrooge! We have been hearing the Christmas tunes in the local stores for weeks now. Kohl’s had their ornaments and all that crap out even before the Halloween stuff was gone.
And I hate it. Because I look forward to this time of year so much! I just want it to be for the right amount of time, so I don’t want to scream when I hear “Santa Baby” for the three-thousandth time and it’s only December 3rd.
You know people that actually pay others to decorate for them? WOW! I hadn’t heard that one before! I am so with you though, I am not ready for the full blown Christmas thing just yet although I love it! I was just looking at my house too this morning and thought, “Those pumpkins will look good with some garland on them for Christmas!” I just can’t get rid of them just yet! Happy Holidays, Amy! I love your blog and thank you for leading me to this one! 🙂
You are NOT a scrooge! I agree with everything you said/wrote!! The stores frustrate me so much with their Christmas displays before Thanksgiving. Soon they will be selling Christmas in August. We put up our decorations the weekend after Thanksgiving. No Christmas tree, no stockings… just pumpkins and other Thanksgiving-y things. Preach it girl!!
I’m personally horrified that my xm channel 23 turned into the seasonal Holly channel last week. C’mon.
Husband just returned from Brazil and reports that Christmas is all a-blaze down there….but as they have no Thanksgiving holiday to get through, I figure they have a pass. When he complained to a compatriot that it was a tad early, they looked at him like he was loco — “it’s only a month away,” they admonished.
AND, haven’t yet begun the shopping. Oh, the shopping. 4 am at Target? I think not.
Yeesh. Pass the stuffing.