It’s finally November. We’ve had our Halloween fun, and Thanksgiving and Christmas are upon us. That means one of two things for most people. Either you exchange the scary Halloween decorations for cute Fall items, or you’re like me and you start decorating for Christmas. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love Thanksgiving as much as the rest of you, but Christmas is ultimately my favorite time of the year. It’s filled with family traditions, love and laughter. Not to mention the coziness of the lights on the tree when I’m cuddled up watching a Christmas movie. How could it not be my favorite? Society seems to think that it’s not OK to start thinking about Christmas before Thanksgiving. I’m here to tell you that it is. You should do whatever makes YOU happy and forget about the rest.
In my family, we’ve pretty much always done things the same way year after year. At my house, I would help my mom put out decorations right before Thanksgiving. We would put out her little snow village, decorate the mantle with garland and lights, as well as with the cutest little carousel that played Christmas music, and, of course, hang all of our stockings. We always had to wait until a little after Thanksgiving to put up the tree since we buy live trees, which is another fun tradition in itself. My grandparents always wait until the week before Christmas to put their tree up. All the grandkids and great grandkids get together and help decorate it while we watch Christmas Vacation and drink my grandma’s homemade hot chocolate. Oh, how I love these memories.
Now that I’m in college and have an apartment, I decorate whenever I want. Of course, that is if my roommates approve. Thankfully enough they love Christmas and the decorations as much as I do. The thing of it is, we’re only here to enjoy it for just a few weeks in December before we all go home for break. Because of this, I take full advantage of the time we are here in November to enjoy my decorations. No, I don’t have my tree or any decorations up for that matter, but I’m definitely excited to put them up! And guess what, I’m not going to let society tell me it’s wrong to decorate early because that’s what makes ME happy. Why should it matter what everyone else thinks if it doesn’t affect them? Every year at this time I hear so many people bashing those that decorate “too early,” and that’s just wrong. Sure, maybe you don’t agree with that and do it at your house, but why take away that joy from those that do? There is no rule that says we can’t do something if it makes us happy.
In today’s world, it seems as if society has this idea of what is right and wrong. Everyone feels this pressure to listen to those ideas. However, it’s simply an idea, not a fact. The truth is, we need to do what makes us happy. If you want to listen to Christmas music in July, then do it. If you want to watch Christmas movies in October, then do it. If your tree is up on Halloween day or if you wait until Christmas Eve, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that it makes you happy. If it makes you happy to keep your lights up all year long, then that’s all that’s really important.  It’s your home and your life, so what everyone else thinks and says should not matter because that is simply none of their business.
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Photo courtesy of Pixabay.
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