November has passed, which means it’s officially Christmas time in the Sonnenberg household. Much to my lament, decorations went up the second week of November, and my home is now flooded with snowmen, Santa Clauses and varied assortments of Christmas-related trinkets collected over the last decade.

I struck up a conversation with my sisters, the very ones who campaigned to my parents to put Christmas decorations up so early, about why they cared for the decorations so deeply; why the day after Halloween had to mark the start of Christmas songs, lights and dumb costumes for my poor dog. They made an excellent point: there was not enough time that felt like Christmas.

I realized I have been missing the fervent holiday cheer experienced as a child during the Christmas season. During elementary school, I had weeks at home to enjoy the holidays. Perhaps it was the simplicity of the times, but I have become ardent in my belief that my holiday joy is intrinsically tied to the number of days I can spend sleeping in, the hours of video games I can squeeze in and, more importantly, the time I can spend experiencing the “good” of the holidays with my family.

We only have a little over a week for Christmas, which comes and goes in the blink of an eye. Instead, that extra Christmas time is tacked onto February as “mid-winter break.” Though I love the time to sleep in and laze the days of break away, mid-winter break feels wholly unnecessary, and breaks the school year up awkwardly.

There is a cold shock that comes from adjusting my sleep schedule at the last minute, and returning to sleep-inducing economics or algebra classes. No offense to my teachers.

After returning to class in January, students only have a minimal amount of time until the next block of time off. Once midterms are done, early-onset senioritis spreads across all South students and teachers to make that entire block of school feel like a slog that is impossible to walk through. Time not spent too well.

Regardless, I often find mid-winter breaks spent locked inside with nothing to do. Mid-winter break is spent by Grosse Pointe families as a time to vacation, and take that trip down to Florida, which 90 percent of the town has had. As someone who does not vacation during the winter months or truly “vacation” to begin with, mid-winter break doesn’t feel like it has a good reason to exist.

It is my absolute belief that this extra break should cease to exist, and should instead be utilized as time to make Christmas feel more like Christmas, and allow for the Sonnenberg household to have Thanksgiving decorations around the house for a little bit instead.