(I may have said all of this before, but for once, I am not taking time to check. Bear with me.)
I was always opposed to Christmas decorations and Christmas music before Thanksgiving or on Thanksgiving, but in the last few years I haven’t minded when people started early, given all that has been going on.
This year, as soon as this weekend is over, I am going to try to get Christmas up and running here. The reason is that it’s been a rough month: Out of town family came for a stressful visit, and the other part will be coming back into town on Sunday, so the BIG FEAST will be then. Yesterday, (officially Thanksgiving), we ate canned ham with pineapple, turkey drummettes, mashed potatoes, gravy and cauliflower. Grandson#1 came in after work and ate Italian chicken, with vegetable pasta and broccoli. He took a small pumpkin pie, some leaf-shaped iced spice cookies and pumpkin bread to his friends where he has been staying. We ate pecan pie; (I’m breaking into the pumpkin one today. I will have to put on the dog, (or turkey, rather), starting tomorrow, for Sunday, and then the real dog goes home; (the granddog).
But I may well be playing Christmas music while I cook.
As if things had not been stressful enough, I have been going through health problems, tests and doctors.
I need a little Christmas now; it may turn into a whole lot of Christmas.
My mother once kept the Christmas tree up until the day before Palm Sunday; she took it down because she thought it was just wrong to keep it up given the coming days. However, one year she actually kept up one of the ‘sprays’ she made of pine boughs, tied with a huge red ribbon, and sprayed with fake snow, all year long. Seriously, she put it up early one December and took it down the next December when she brought in a new one.
I never could understand putting the tree up on Christmas Eve. It seems like a lot of trouble for too short of a time.
Yet I have no intention of keeping the Christmas things up too long, not more than a couple of days after Epiphany, unless the weather turns really bad; Then it will all get put away as soon as we get a break.
I am in the mood for making Christmas cookies and maybe even some candy this year. I had cut back on that, but maybe it is time to revive it all.
I will be checking the Kindle and audiobooks for Christmas-themed stories, plus rolling out the loved DVDs and streaming new Christmas movies starting today.
How about you?
Do you wait? Do you start early?
Has it changed for you?
I think it’s just about time for Hans Gruber to fall off the Nakatomi Tower.
Angela Schroeder
Patricia Kiyono
Elaine Cantrell
Jeff Salter
Joselyn
Tonette Joyce
Four Foxes, One Hound 
I’m sorry you’ve had such a stressful time. Hope you’re able to get some relief. Sounds like a vacation is in order – like from October through March. I had to look up Hans Gruber because I’ve never watched Die Hard.
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Too funny, Patty. Over the past few years I had my grandson sit down once in a while to see what I considered movies that are referenced a lot and Die Hard was one of them.
If I even goon vacation, I am not coming back! But I have made up my mind on how some of the stress will be reduced.
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I agree with you that Die Hard is a great seasonal film, but I’ll watch it just about any time. Same for its sequel. [But not the follow-up movies.]
My birthday is in early December, so my Mom always insisted the Christmas decorating NOT begin until my birthday was over.
That still feels natural and “right” to me, but I don’t harbor any ill will over the people who begin decorating in November (or October, or September).
One year we kept our tree up until nearly Easter, but it was just because we were both busy working full time and our kids were grown and moved-away. Didn’t seem so “urgent” to remove the tree.
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We usually watch a lot of movies, but not recently. We can afford to let Die Hard to kick-start the Christmas season.
I am sorry for most December children, although my oldest niece was born on December 13th. By that time, Christmas was in full swing at our house!
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Yeah, our daughter was born on Dec. 23.
When she was little, we’d have her birthday party in January, after the holidays.
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That’s so nice!
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I couldn’t agree with you more. We started today. We’ve had lots of issues here too, and we do need a little Christmas now.
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I now find that I have to wait until at least Wednesday, with family problems, but I am planning the cooking and what to decorate…and the movies are being lined up. I already had Chirstmas songs and The Nutcracker on today, while I am making the big feast for tomorrow.
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I sort of wish I had waited until next week myself. Our tree is up, but I don’t like it. It doesn’t look like my usual trees, and sometimes that could be a good thing, but not this time. I’m disappointed!
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I hope decorating, listening to music, and baking brings you some peace and joy.
Jessica let us decorate early this year. She said she was in the mood for Christmas because we didn’t do much last year with everything else that was going on.
I’m praying for you and your family.
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