Don’t get me wrong, I am a huge fan of the holidays, but there is a time when the celebration begins a little too early. It seems like every year, the buzz for Christmas comes earlier and earlier. Driving down streets this year, there were decorations and lights up everywhere right after Halloween. What about Thanksgiving? Starbucks had its festive holiday cups out and stores and malls were already top to toe filled with red, green, and white. Sure, do what you want when it comes to trees and decorations inside, but the outside is shared with everyone.

When stores like Target pull out their decorations right after Halloween, it’s almost like they are forgetting Thanksgiving. The Christmas decorations override the Thanksgiving festivities by a large margin. The holiday season pulls in a lot of money and sales on items to where it becomes a competition between different retailers. Shopping before the month of Christmas can be common which pushes retailers to get an early start on holiday items. Decorations and holiday music in stores should not be allowed until mid-November. Although stores have a purpose with setting out the holiday cheer a little early, I refuse to give in to it until after Thanksgiving.

The trouble with this early decorating is that by the time Christmas comes, so many people are already ready to take down the decorations and get on with their day to day lives, or at least the ones that start celebrating early. I get it, starting to celebrate right after Halloween would make the holidays grow old.

But, celebrating for just one month makes the holidays so much more real and alive. That feeling when the holidays first-come warms my heart, but once it has overstayed its welcome, my attitude becomes more grinch-like. Christmas should be celebrated to the fullest, but too much is simply too much.