My family and I like to alert each other each year to what stores get ready for Christmas the earliest. With the advent of camera phones, it's become even easier.

≡ Click to see image ≡
I took this picture with my phone on October 16th at the CVS near my house.
In the foreground: Christmas gift wrap and Christmas tree ornaments.
In the background: Cobwebs and halloween candy.

I'm looking for a picture my mom sent me of the Providence Place Mall, all done up in Christmas lights and wreathes and poinsettias, but I don't think I have it on my phone anymore. She sent it on or around Halloween, I think.

However, in both CVS and the mall, no Christmas music was playing. I think they're smart enough to assault only your eyes first, and then wait until at least late November to start filling your head with holiday earworms.

My local corner store was putting out Christmas candy Halloween day.

But I still like Christmas music starting around now. Okay, Thanksgiving.

Shoot. The craft stores start in August. My birthday ritual is to spend at least two hours at Hobby Lobby. It's right after the vacation bible schools are over and just before school starts, so there are sales on great kids craft stuff.

Christmas in August starts out in one corner, with crafty bits and felt and assemble your own decorations. The quantity quietly increasees during September after the back to school sale is out.

After Halloween you start seeing trees and greens along with the pumpkins. It's about a week before Thanksgiving that it really goes nuts and you see it all over the store. Lights and blow up Santas and every gimcrack you could imagine.

I'm one of those that takes "keep Christmas with you" seriously, so it's never too soon for me. I wear a Santa hat all through December, I go nuts decorating, and I just do non stop cooking when I can get away with it. Tamales, menudo, even homemade eggnog (cooked). I get the winter blues pretty easily, so this helps bring me out of it.

As for earworms, I don't get 'em, so I don't really notice when that starts.

wait until at least late November to start filling your head with holiday earworms

I went shopping on Thursday or Friday and found almost every store had holiday-themed sale ads up and music on. Too soon. ugh.

Nordstrom's has a sign at the entrance promising that they will not decorate for Christmas until after Thanksgiving. However, the one by my office is in a downtown mall and the mall common areas were decked out by Nov. 5. Walgreens had their candy aisle switched to Christmas candy by Nov. 1.

The drugstores near me swapped out Halloween for Christmas, too.

Some thoughts:

I've been working in museums for 10 years, and schools before that. Christmas has always had to start early for me - as early as June in museums, and September in schools. Not the celebration itself, but the planning. When will our holiday event(s) be? What updates are we making for the program? What historic holiday info can I research to freshen things up this year? Where can I order retro decorations, natural wreathmaking materials, historic holiday music? What songs are we singing for the pageant and how early do we need to rehearse them? When you are the ones making events and programs happen, you have to plan ahead, and that often means we meet through the summer to talk St. Nick and everything else. So by the time it actually arrives, I've been ready for a while.

This is also true historically - before the age of computer-assisted just-in-time supply chains, people really did have to plan early and place orders early.Before and during WWII people were asked to place poultry and meat orders in October for December pickup. During the war people had to save their ration coupons for pickup. Knitting and sewing projects had to start early. So in a way, delaying the preparations is more modern - it's not getting worse, to some extent it's always happened.

I think the difference is that it's not preparations that have become more common in the pre-Christmas season, it's active celebration. A lot of our Christmas carols used to actually be timed with the liturgical calendar. They were meant for church. In the 1800s you wouldn't be likely to hear "Silent Night" until Christmas Eve, in church. There were Advent carols, Nativity Carols, and Christmas Carols, which started Christmas Day and extended through January 6, the traditional "12 Days." There are other saint's day carols in there too, which have become "Christmas" carols now, like "Good King Wenceslas." We no longer observe the distinctions and just play all of them, all at once, starting whenever the "Christmas season" begins. This kind of muddles some of the specialness those songs once had. But meanwhile, purely pop songs like "Jingle Bells" (1876) and, later, "Let it Snow" and "Winter Wonderland" and the like have been appropriate throughout the whole season regardless of the religious calendar.

In the last few years, I've realized that life is busy. Really busy. And since I work extra during the Christmas season, putting on weekend events the three weekends leading up to the holiday, I've found that if I take a stingy approach to the celebration and insist on not having Christmas around before X date, then it goes by all too fast and I end up feeling as though I missed the whole thing. Which stinks. That, and there are also projects I'd like to do which require more time than a scant four weeks. I'd like to go back to sending dead-tree Christmas cards. In fact I'd like to make my own. I like to bake and make Christmas candy, and I like to decorate the house, and host a party. There's just no way to get all that done if I wait until the day after THanksgiving. So in the past few years, I've decided not to wait any more. I've been starting some crafty stuff already.

But my basic mental calendar goes like this: start cards and baking shopping/plans before Thanskgiving. Observe Thanksgiving. Get Christmas tree and unpack decorations Thanksgiving weekend, or as soon after as possible. Set up tree as early as possible. Set up Nativity scene (minus the J-man, shepherds, and 'wise guys.' The active seeking and playing of Christmas music is permissible during this period. Enjoy Christmas. Christmas Eve, J-man and shepherds arrive in Nativity scene. Wise Guys begin their journey across the living room, moving gradually without anyone seeing them move. Have Christmas Day. Decorations stay up at least through the 6th of January or the weekend after. Decorations get packed away then over a few relaxed hours on a Sunday or so.

Life is short, celebrations few. The winter holiday season is almost painfully lovely. I can't bring myself to corral it too fiercely.

If we had favorites on this site, I would be favoriting the SHIT out of Miko's comment. Miko, you are awesome. I basically agree with everything you said, you just say it so much better than I ever could.

Is it Christmas yet?

Walking home last week, I beamed absurdly at the municipal worker hanging the city's non-specified-holiday lights in the trees along the main drag. Why the smile? Because last year, they hung them before Halloween, and it irked me.

Though I resist early decoration, I do start my Christmas scheming planning months ahead, because my family's gift exchange is modest. I like to make things: beaded jewelry, handmade toys and costumes, scarves, simple woodworking projects like shadowboxes and curio cases. This year, I'm trying out some homemade bay rum.

I can't wait until December to make these things, because then I'm busy with a) finals and b) prepping the cookies, breads, and candies I'm going to give away.

I'd like to go back to sending dead-tree Christmas cards. In fact I'd like to make my own. I like to bake and make Christmas candy, and I like to decorate the house, and host a party. There's just no way to get all that done if I wait until the day after Thanksgiving.

For this reason, when I was working in a small boutique (and almost doubling my weekly hours from Thanksgiving until Christmas Eve), I reserved Christmas only for immediate family. Instead of frantically scrambling during my busiest season, I would wait and send out New Year's card or Valentines to all my friends.

It was a simple way to keep myself sane, and it meant people got the cards after the crush of non-specified-holiday cards and packages is over. People who had never even mentioned my handmade non-specified-holiday cards would call me up the day their New Year's card arrived. It was lovely.

By the same token, we finally persuaded the boss to have an employee party after January inventory, when we all had time to enjoy it, instead of in December.

homemade bay rum

Oh my...that sounds amazing!

We used to have our holiday party in January at my last job, too. It was so great because it brightened up that month, which can feel like kind of a letdown after the chaos of December.

Miko, your earlier comment was dead on to how I feel. I love the Christmas season. Heck, I love this whole season, from back to school right through New Years. In our store, we started getting Christmas items as early as September, though we didn't start putting it out until Halloween (literally as the Halloween stuff sold out, it was condensed and the Christmas stuff took it's place). The company doesn't start playing Christmas music (sorry, Holiday Music) until the day after Thanksgiving. Since we have a fake tree, I like to set it up the Sunday after Thanksgiving, and decorate the house as well. I just wish that people would be as nice as they should be during the whole holiday season. Unfortunately, it seems to bring out the worst as opposed to the best in others.

I guess my perspective on Christmas is kind of different.

I am a Christian - though let me preface that by saying that for me, Jesus' teachings are primarily about love and tolerance. He specifically tells us not to judge, so who am I to criticise others for their actions, when my own are so far from perfect. I believe in treating others as I would be treated, and looking after others, especially the poor etc. I am also staunchly left-wing, pro-choice, and pro-gay - just so you know.

For me, Christmas has lost a lot of it's value. Driving around and seeing Christmas lights is fun, but I also find it frustrating and kind of sad in some ways. Christmas was about being generous to others, and showing family that you love them. I guess I find it offensive that it is now such a corporate way to make lots of money at the end of the year.

I mean, don't get me wrong, I love spending time with my family, and swapping gifts, and eating way too much delicious food. But I get really resentful of all the bullshit that comes along with that. All the "Oh it's all about the spirit of Christmas" rubbish. Christmas doesn't have a fucking spirit, thank-you very much.

I guess I just really hate and am opposed to something that has real religious significance to me being turned into something that is exploited as a way to make money.

Shouldn't we have swapped our addresses for Mecha holiday cards already? I will making my own paper again this year.

"Yay Christmas Music Thread!"
"AUGH NO, SCREW THAT, I HATE EARLY CHRISTMASNESS."

"OK FINE. ARRR, STORES PUSH CHRISTMAS TOO EARLY, AMIRITE?"
"MAYBE BUT I LOOOOVVVVE CHRISTMAS AND IT'S NEVER TOO EARLY TO START"

Fine! I give up! You are all backwards, and you're lucky I like you guys so darn much ;)

I wanna favorite everyone's comments, too. I love hearing about what the holidays mean to people.
Busy printing photos at school, else I'd contribute my own $0.02.

"Yay Christmas Music Thread!"
"AUGH NO, SCREW THAT, I HATE EARLY CHRISTMASNESS."

After chirping merrily about all my holiday gifties and goodies, I will add: OH, SWEET BUTTERY HOOTENANNY, NO, I am not having Christmas music.

Do I mean "early Christmas music"? No. I mean any commercially produced Christmas music. Not in October, not in November, maybe not even in December. No. No. No.

This is one of the joys of a homemade Christmas gift exchange: I don't spend any time in shops or malls, so my exposure to the overplayed tunes of the year is sharply limited, and when I do hear them, it's usually actual humans actually singing in their imperfect voices, bursting with happiness and moved to song. That's pretty amazing.

I'm ordering my Christmas cards tonight. I am having a really difficult time deciding what message to print on them!

hey TPS, where do you order your cards from?

VistaPrint. I got 100 with plain envelopes for $33 bucks (that includes standard 14 day shipping).

thank you!

Here in Canada, Christmas stuff goes out the day after Halloween. Thanksgiving has been done by then so stores go straight into Xmas mode pronto.

Personally, I'm not really in that mood until December 1st. I've never been a huge Xmas person anyway, so it seems a bit weird to get psyched up and decorated up before that.

My weird hoarding neighbour put up her (outdoor) Christmas tree a week or so ago.

(Oh, and today was the first time I noticed Christmas music this year, but I might just be inattentive.)

Christmas was about being generous to others, and showing family that you love them. I guess I find it offensive that it is now such a corporate way to make lots of money at the end of the year.

I highly recommend this book: The Battle for Christmas. It is a comprehensive history of the development of the holiday. It may, oddly, make you feel better to realize that it hardly existed, as we know it, until it became a consumer holiday in the early 1800s - it was a minor feast day with some associated misrule (drunkenness) traditions until then, and as soon as it became a commercial holiday, it began to take on greater religious significance - in the same sort of way that Hanukkah was a very minor holiday until it came up against Christmas celebrations, and because it took on new consumer traditions, developed more emphasis on its religious significance as well. Religion and Christmas have had complicated interactions, not always directly related.

It's a really fascinating story and the book tells it in a terrific way. If anything, reading it makes one all the more interested in emphasizing the noncommercial aspects of the holiday, but also, looking for them in daily life the rest of the year, rather than setting one small season aside to be the catchall for every feeling of charity and goodwill that might occur to people.

I sound a lot grumpier than I am about it all... I know the pagan beginnings of the holiday, and a lot of other 'religious' holidays.

If the holiday was celebrated the as a purely secular holiday, I think it would annoy me less than the secular holiday posing as a religious holiday. By this, I'm not so much referring to people who aren't religious celebrating Christmas, but corporations trying to include religion to sell more products.

I also get fed up with the idea of "the spirit of Christmas" for the same reasons that you mention above - the focus on good will for this one season misses the point, as you say, it should be a year round event.

That said, there is much to enjoy about Christmas.

And to be honest, in terms of religious significance, Christmas is far less important than Easter. The story of Easter impacts my faith far more than looking at the virgin birth, or worshiping a baby in a cradle. The idea of grace, of sacrifice and of forgiveness I find far more resonant than even the most 'religious' Christmas message.

Working in advertising the holiday seasons are all out of whack. Christmas briefs are given out around August, Easter briefs around November, Summer Holiday briefs are worked on while you're still hungover from New Years eve. I usually ignore christmas until the 13th of December (Lucia) when I go nuts, bake lots of lussekatter, watch the chosen Lucia sing her way through the city and grab any glögg I can find. This year I bought christmas ornaments on sale in January, an advent-calender with toys for each day in late October, and last weekend I made an advent candle holder with my daughter so, oops, I've gotten bitten by the bug already.

(Since the daughter knows where that toy-calender is, it's been a hard few weeks to keep her way from it. NEVAH AGAIN!)

This is me coming in here to favourite BOTH of Citrusfreak12's threads so hard. Dude I've been ridiculously busy these past few weeks, but what Miko said, every bit of it. Hugs, and you'd better post some of those photos you're printing.

Oh and for the record, I went up in the attic this weekend and started the digging-out process for the Christmas decorations in the lfr household.

Don't get me wrong, I like the holidays. I just don't like it arriving so early, it makes it feel like the year is over when there's really still 2 months left. Time goes by fast enough, you know?

I really want to get a Christmas tree this year since we won't be traveling. But I fear the cat will just get all up in there and ruin everything/destroy our living room.

I love the lights and things, for no other reason than they are pretty. And I adore "holiday" flavors that come out this time of year. Peppermint, pumpkin spice, gingerbread, YUM. I just tried this gingerbread spice tea the other day and it's delicious. And I made pumpkin lasagna last week that rocked my world.

I love Christmas carols, beginning on the day after Thanksgiving, ending on Christmas. Live carols, yes, Santa got run over by a reindeer, you betcha, I love most of it, with the exception of The little Drummer Boy. I hate Per rum pum pum pum. and I'm not very fond of Fa La La La La La La la la. Is that so wrong?

pumpkin lasagna

Recipe, please!