Around this time of year, shops begin putting up their Christmas displays and stocking the old Halloween shelves with Christmas decorations. Some people begin celebrating the holidays as soon as Halloween is over, while others wait until December or after Thanksgiving.

Many believe one month is not enough to celebrate Christmas while others think celebrating in November is way too early. For me, I think celebrating at the end of November, right after Thanksgiving, is the perfect time to start. It gives me a good four weeks to enjoy the holiday season and begin doing all of my favorite things without starting too early. 

The best part of Christmas is not the day itself but the month leading up to it. Christmas wouldn’t be as special if I was celebrating it for two months rather than one, so I start celebrating and decorating after Thanksgiving. 

Although it’s generally believed that the majority of Christmas decorating starts the weekend after Thanksgiving and that the holiday season strictly belongs in the month of December, a national survey shows that 43% of people start their holiday preparations before December. 

Once the first weekend after Thanksgiving hits, it’s the time to bring out the Christmas box from the basement and decorate the house from top to bottom. It’s the time to light peppermint scented candles, hang stockings above the fireplace, chop down the perfect tree, and start playing Christmas music and watching Christmas movies. The decorations and family traditions are what makes Christmas Christmas. 

Christmas is the time to surround yourself with loved ones and the time to reflect on everything you’re grateful for. According to Neuroscience News, “Celebrations can increase our appreciation for the positive elements in our lives, and will draw upon stores of positive emotion that we’ve built through memory.”

Christmas gives me the chance to relive my childhood and feel like a kid again. I look forward to baking cookies and watching “Home Alone 2” with my family on Christmas Eve. I enjoy wearing matching pajamas, making gingerbread houses, and doing secret Santa with my friends. I even wear ugly Christmas sweaters and track Santa – which were my favorite things to do when I was a kid. The feeling of waking up on Christmas morning is a burst of exhilaration that I only experience on Dec 25. 

So, why not begin the festivities a bit early? After Thanksgiving, we can start spreading holiday cheer and completing all of our annual traditions. Celebrating early will allow us to rekindle our relationships with our loved ones and feel like children once more during the holiday months.