When I look outside my window I see Christmas lights strung across houses, trees being dressed in ornaments and stars and Santa themed decorations planted atop lawns. With all of these Christmas festivities you’d think the holiday is just days or weeks away, but the truth is…

It’s November.

Thanksgiving was just a few days ago and people are already listening to Christmas music and decorating their homes in excessive amounts of red and green. Don’t get me wrong, I love the holidays, but celebrating a month early is completely ridiculous.

By starting the celebration a month in advance, the holiday excitement dies down by the time it’s actually Christmas. I find it very excessive to prep for weeks on end for a holiday that only lasts one day. Not to mention, celebrating Christmas in November takes anticipation away from Thanksgiving. Although no presents are given or received during Thanksgiving, I still find it important to appreciate the gratitude that the wholesome holiday is centered around. Thanksgiving deserves its own spotlight and I feel as though prepping for Christmas takes attention away from it.

Additionally, it’s boring to watch the same Christmas movies and listen to the same Christmas songs almost every day leading up to the holidays. For example, I enjoy watching the movie Elf to get into the Christmas spirit, but it gets old if I see it more than once a year. I understand the tradition of watching the “classic” holiday movies annually, but they eventually start to get repetitive, especially if you watch them multiple times a season. As for Christmas music, I find it completely pointless in November and the early weeks of December because the jolly overplayed tunes get tedious fast. I prefer to save fun holiday movies and songs for the week before Christmas so that all of the holiday enthusiasm is maintained up until the actual event.

Christmas is meant to be special and celebrating early only takes away from the excitement that comes with the holidays. People’s eagerness to prepare for Christmas causes the special day to feel drawn out and less unique. To fix this problem, I suggest all Christmas traditions such as tree decorating and festive music begin two weeks prior to the holiday. This way, there is an adequate amount of time to celebrate without it being too excessive.

Although I may seem like a Christmas hater, it truly is my favorite holiday of all. However, as much as I love it, I think waiting for holiday fun is much more worthwhile than preparing too early. Christmas belongs at the end of December, so celebrating in October, November, or even early December is beyond too early for me. So, I would greatly appreciate it if everyone kept their Christmas decor stored away for just awhile longer to preserve the anticipation of this wonderful holiday.