As soon as the clock strikes midnight on Oct. 31, making it officially Nov. 1, there’s always a group of people that immediately break out the Christmas decorations, music and start the 24/7 loop of “Elf” on TV. But, what about Thanksgiving?
The holiday is so frequently overshadowed by Christmas and Halloween, but why? With Thanksgiving you don’t have to stress about getting someone the perfect gift, being able to afford getting gifts for all your friends and family and not gaining that holiday weight because, let’s be real here, we all gain what feels like a million pounds over Thanksgiving so let’s all just accept our fate now and move onto bigger and better things.
All those stressors accompany the Christmas holiday and, while of course the holiday is full of countless other joys, it’s nice to be able to avoid those stress inducing things for just a little longer. So, when is the perfect time to switch gears into the Christmas season?
I think my mom has the balance between Christmas and Thanksgiving down to a science. After Halloween, she sets out all of our Thanksgiving/ fall decorations: the cute stuffed turkeys, pumpkins on the front porch, the whole shabang. The Thanksgiving cheer resonates throughout the house until after Black Friday, at which point the Christmas tree goes up, the 4.5 million decorative Santa’s come out and my dad turns into the biggest Grinch known to man.
The Christmas tree doesn’t come down until after New Years, giving us nearly a month and a half to enjoy the glittering fern in our h ouse.
Personally, I love Christmas time. The way my house looks with the twinkling lights running down the bannisters and the faint smell of a Vanilla Bean Noel candle brings me insurmountable joy. While I’m all about breaking out the old Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole Christmas classics, maybe it’s time to take a minute to appreciate Thanksgiving as it so often is overshadowed by the Christmas cheer.
The women in my family spend hours of time preparing for the 3 p.m. dinner. My dads side of the family gathers around the table, says grace and then stuff our faces with three or four different kinds of pie, corn casserole, stuffing and of course, lots and lots of turkey, oozing with gravy. How can you skip over that?
On the other hand, I can totally see how the whole thing can be a bit overwhelming and can be a sort of slap in the face right after Halloween. Maybe waiting a week or two after Halloween to start the whole Christmas thing wouldn’t be so bad. It gives the spooky holiday a chance to resonate with everyone and it gives us a chance to recover and hang up our witches hats and cat ears.
Of course, no matter how and when you celebrate these holidays, the important thing here is the opportunity to spend time with your family and to give back to those less fortunate than yourself.
