When should you start Christmas preliminaries? After Halloween or after Thanksgiving? I can see both sides of the fence in this one.
Growing up we were not allowed to play Christmas music or put up any decorations before the Friday following Thanksgiving. Of course on that Friday all Christmas-ness broke loose as we climb up to the loft in the top of my parent's garage to fish out all thing Christmas. My sister would make sure that Christmas music was playing bright and earl. We put up our fake tree, decorated the downstairs with my mom's collection of Nativities, and (sometimes) put the lights up outside.
I asked my mom one year why we had to wait until after Thanksgiving and she gave me a very astute (as always) answer. It is to give Thanksgiving a fair shake (that is me paraphrasing). The more I think about it the more I agree that Thanksgiving does get swallowed up by Christmas too often. In stores the day after Halloween all the Christmas things get put out (if they weren't out already) and, in some cases, Christmas music goes on the radio. I can understand the stores' reasoning: unless you are a grocery store, you get more revenue from Halloween and Christmas than Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving is a very important holiday though. Even if you don't want to celebrate the Native-Americans-save-the-English-settlers bit just the idea of having a day of the year soley devoted to thinking about all your blessings and to be especially grateful towards you Heavenly Father is, I think, a very good thing.
One another side of the same coin, Christmas is also an extremely important holiday and should really get more than a month for celebrating the birth of our Savior, so is starting the day after Halloween such a bad thing? Honestly Christmas could just be thought of as an extension of Thanksgiving (actually that should be the other way around).
Like I said, I can see both sides; and now, being the mommy and needing to decide holiday traditions and everything that comes along with that, I still am far from making up my mind on this matter.
Of course this is all a moot point since we will be moving right before Christmas and be spending the actual holiday in Canada...
5 comments:
Well, you know where I side on this one, LOL...
IMO Christmas and Thanksgiving are all about the same things - for us we try to make it an entire season (from November 1st on) focused on gratitude for what we have and giving to those with less - both of which stem out of a desire to be Christ-like (which, after all, is the whole point of both holidays.) For us it's not about celebrating distinct holidays, but a period to get reacquainted with the things that matter. But I know it's different for everyone.
Anyway, I'll put away my soapbox now. ;)
I should add to the above one caveat: we really do try not to get sucked up in the commercial side of Christmas, the premise (i.e. getting more stuff) of which is kind of the antithesis of being thankful, etc. So we really do try to focus on the spirit and meaning of both holidays (being with family, counting your blessings, savoring memories, etc.) as one massive, interrelated celebration, rather than buying into (literally or figuratively) the materialism surrounding that time of year.
It has always been tradition in my family (growing up) to "decorate" for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving...but Christmas has always seeped in before the end of November.
I love Thanksgiving. I love taking out to focus on what I'm thankful for. I feel like it does get lost a bit in the Christmas season and while I agree that they go hand in hand and do mesh with each other, I think it has a place on it's own. Maybe this is why I tend to drag my feet a little on putting up the Christmas tree early.
I agree with Jen though - I'm mostly talking about the commercial Christmas and the trinkets and symbols of this holiday. The VALUES of Christmas are hopefully in our hearts year round and we, too, are trying to instill in our children the importance of looking outward to our world in need, rather than just worrying about the "stuff" we can get.
I hold no judgments against those who choose to celebrate early...I actually am enjoying the Creek tree from my front window. =)
I start to think about gifts and things like that pretty early (much to Adam's annoyance) because I can never think of anything good and I like to get people things that they'll actually use and enjoy.. but I'm a firm believer that decorations and things like that are for after thanksgiving.
The end of your post makes it sound like they don't celebrate Christmas in Canada...those heathens.
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