I'm one of those people, those old fogies, who believe that you shouldn't celebrate Christmas until you have celebrated Thanksgiving. It disturbs me to go to a mall in mid-October and see it dressed for Christmas, and to see them hawking merchandise on the basis of it's "gift appeal."
I can understand towns and villages wanting to get the decorations up while the weather is still reasonably warm. I can deal with that sort of thing as long as the decorations are not lighted until the day after Thanksgiving.
I know....I'm a grinch. But it seems to me that we have lost the entire point of the celebration of Christmas in the overflow of merchandise and garish decorations.
Now, having said that, I have to tell you that I am the first person on my block to have my Christmas tree lighted.
When the neighbors moved in behind us I realized that THEY were early celebrators of Christmas. By mid November, she had her tree up, and it was lighted every night. It made me grit my teeth. "How COULD she be so gauche!?" I railed.
Actually, our neighbors are retirees and it's possible that they were celebrating early because their children could only convene for one holiday. I'd like to give them the benefit of the doubt on this, even though seeing her shining Christmas tree made me crazy.
So....we took a trip to Alaska. When we got home, I was visiting Hobby Lobby, and they had these 6 foot "Sitka spruce" trees for sale. Actually, they are homely trees, but they reminded me of our trip, and they were cheap. Since I'm cheap, too, the match was made in heaven. I brought one home, and I've decorated this homely little tree with hand made ornaments that have been gifts from the members of my quilting bee.
Today, my niece was helping me with the heavy cleaning before the holidays started, and when she finished in the living room, she plugged in the cord for the Christmas tree. So, I win the Christmas lighting race this year. I'm feeling very conflicted. On the one hand, I feel it's wrong to have it lighted. On the other, it's fun to be the first on my block. Maybe I need to rethink my position.
(...nudging the tree over a little bit, so it's right in front of the window..... )
Danger! Danger! Danger! We humans are a conflicted bunch, aren't we? This is how arms races start: each nation wishing to be the first to bristle with the latest means of mass destruction.
Put that tree in the closet with the eucalyptus until after Thanksgiving, you evil person! Well, if it really gives you one up on the Joneses....
Boy, THAT'S the truth!
You'll be relieved to know that the lighting of the tree was an accident, and I don't really feel the urge to one up. Well...I might have but the urge has passed! *G* Yeah....I'm conflicted. Couldn't you tell that from all my other posts?? It's the Libra in me.
There's no room in that closet for the tree. That's why I was busy cleaning in there. At least there's one less bottle of essential oil now!
Buffy, you already have the tree up and lighted? We can easily wait till after Thanksgiving up north here, as it is in October, but I'd not be too happy with the American Thanksgiving, too close to Christmas - makes holiday prep time so cramped!
Des, it was lighted by accident. I left a little fake Sitka spruce up all year because I like the tree and the ornaments, too. My niece plugged it in the other day, so we won the race to have the first Christmas decorations.
I'm with you. I hate the Christmas decorations hitting stores and streets even before we celebrate Thanksgiving. I envy you having some time between the holidays. Not only are we doing the usual Christmas and Thanksgiving rush, we're also doing an open house for my mother's birthday on December 5th. I'm going to need two weeks off after New Years!