There are two types of people in the world; the kind of people who start singing “It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas” the minute they take off their Halloween costume, and the kind of people who despise the first kind.
Speaking as a girl who wore her Frosty the Snowman pajamas the night of Halloween and her Jingle Bells sweater on Nov. 1, I just have to say that I think every single person in this second group is crazy.
All of our “Christmas-haters” have the same arguments. “You’re skipping over Thanksgiving!”, “Christmas is just a stupid consumer holiday!” or “My God, those carols get annoying!”
For me, Christmas time encompasses every single moment after Halloween, continues through Thanksgiving, and unfortunately ends when the ball drops in New York. So no, we’re not skipping over Thanksgiving; we’re just including it as a part of Christmas.
Christmas isn’t just one night and one day. It’s an entire two months of preparing, being with family and being genuinely happy. If you want to limit that to a mere day and a half, there’s got to be something a little screwy north of your neck. First argument knocked out.
I know we hear about it in children’s stories and from really old people and we brush it off as a cliché, but Christmas is about giving, not receiving. Christmas is about thinking long and hard about what special thing you should give your friends and family because you want to show them how much you care.
Christmas is about seeing family you haven’t seen in forever and remembering why you love them so much. And Christmas is about spending time with the family you see every day and appreciating every precious moment that you sometimes take for granted.
To have a really spectacular Christmas, you don’t have to spend a dime. Apparently, the average Christmas shopper gets elbowed at least three times — so skip all that nonsense and give someone a homemade gift from the heart — no elbow bruises.
Best of all, it’s completely free, no consumerism required. Second argument; gone. And you know, if you just happen to get the oil-paint set you’ve been eying all year, that’s just a perk.
And Christmas carols! You’ll listen to T-Pain speak rhythmically about how he loves it when the “shorties get low low low low” but you can’t stand to listen to Bing Crosby actually sing about how he likes it when it snows? C’mon now, sort out your priorities.
I’m not saying you need to be an extremist like me who listens to every version of every single Christmas carol ever made from the beginning of November to the end of December, but really, friends, don’t hate on what’s good. Third and final argument; squashed.
It’s really a shame that Christmas time only lasts from Nov. 1 until Dec. 31. If people acted as kindly and generously as the do around Christmas, the world would be a much better place. Think about that the next time you get angry when somebody wants to celebrate the holidays a little earlier this year.