When is the appropriate time to break out the holiday joy?
Anyone else sick of Christmas before Thanksgiving?
For a lot of people, November 1st is merely the signaling of a new month, but for some people, it means it little more than that: the start of the holiday season. Department stores have their Christmas trees out, there was a blizzard this weekend, and I’ve heard my fair share of Christmas songs already.
So when does the holiday season really begin? For many people the holiday schedule goes as follows:
- October 31st: Halloween
- November 1st-27th: Christmas
- November 28th: Thanksgiving
- November 29th-December 25th: Christmas
Now, I’m not trying to knock anyone having their fun, but when two months of the entire year are reserved to one single day of the year, there has to be something wrong.
There is a large number of individuals where the holiday season is their absolute favorite time of the year. Personally, I know someone with enough holiday-themed socks to wear one pair for every day of December. However, isn’t so much of that holiday ‘magic’ a factor of Christmas only being one day of the year?
In the same way that the person who lives in a tropical paradise stops seeing what’s so magical about perfect weather if society celebrates a holiday for two months straight, shouldn’t that holiday begin to lose its charm?
For most students at NDSU, this holiday season will be one they have experienced for the last two decades. If during that time they celebrated the season from November 1st to Christmas, that’s about 15 percent of our lives spent in the holiday spirit.
My proposal is a shift to not celebrate Christmas until December 15th. That’s ten whole days of ice skating, Christmas songs, and cheesy fireplace apps to keep your heart alight. At the same time, that’s an additional 45 days of sanity for those who aren’t quite ready to don their Christmas sweaters and for the many people who don’t even celebrate Christmas.
Believe me, I know it’s hard to avoid the spirit when we live in a state where it snows in October. It’s like the sky is begging us to start sledding and singing carols. However, the need for winter break is desperate enough without people already discussing their Christmas plans before we’ve even gone through Thanksgiving.
So do everyone a favor: if you really need to expel your Christmas excitement, listen to Christmas music with headphones in, keep your Christmas tree hidden in your closet, and for the love of goodness, please do not start singing “All I Want for Christmas is You.”