Beginning the Christmas season on Nov. 1 works for me. No judgment if it doesn’t work for you.
It feels like the Christmas season has been expanding for a while now, and while some people aren’t fans, others, like me, love to have the season last as long as possible. I love the music, I love the lights and I love how my house looks with Christmas decorations aplenty. It makes me happy.
When my husband and I first started our family, we used to go with a live Christmas tree. They smelled great, but they started dropping needles before too long, so the season was dictated by how long we could keep the tree from becoming a fire hazard. Once we switched to an artificial tree, we started putting up our tree and other decorations right after Thanksgiving. Now, we begin decorating right after Halloween.
To be fair, I have a hard time wrapping my head around Christmas when we’re still celebrating Independence Day — but then again, there are always “Christmas in July” promos going on in craft and fabric stores. My neighbors, who do a fantastic light display every Christmas season, start putting lights on their trees in August. The lights came on Nov. 1.
I hear the arguments that decorating too early robs Thanksgiving of its moment. I disagree. I think Christmas decorations enhance Thanksgiving. What better reminder to be grateful than a beautiful tree, twinkling lights and not having to stress about lugging decoration boxes up from the basement while eating turkey sandwiches?
According to Bankrate, almost half of holiday shoppers (48%) planned to begin before Halloween (not me) and 42% plan to do most of their shopping online (me). The Hallmark channel began releasing its holiday rom-coms in the middle of October. Black Friday sales have already begun or will begin shortly, well before Thanksgiving. Dallas Jenkins’ newest movie, “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” opens this week. Count me in.
Christmas makes many people happy. I was intrigued to see a study in The British Medical Journal saying that they had found a “Christmas spirit” network of neurons in the brain using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). They found that there is a part of the human brain that lights up when people think about Christmas. This “Christmas spirit network” involves several areas in the brain. People who celebrate Christmas and have happy feelings about it show more activity in this part of the brain compared to people who don’t celebrate Christmas or feel neutral about it.
Our Christmas decorating can make other people happy too — or at least, decorating the outside of our homes can make others think kindly toward us. Another study published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology more than 30 years ago found that people who were shown photographs of a home with Christmas decorations perceived the people who lived there as more friendly and sociable than houses without décor. These decorated houses were seen as more “open” or accessible, regardless of how much the residents actually interacted with their neighbors. Case in point: my neighbor’s house makes me happy. It’s like living across from Temple Square.
Here’s the bottom line for me: You do you. If you want to decorate early and take down late, go for it. If you want to cut down your own Christmas tree on Dec. 21, have lots of fun with that. In the end, the beauty of the holiday season lies in its ability to bring joy in countless forms. To me, the spirit of the season is about finding happiness and sharing goodwill with those around us. So, embrace what makes you happy and adds light to your world — and know that, however you celebrate, you’re part of a larger network of joy and generosity that makes this time of year truly special.
