Christmas.  Remember when you were in school (or an adult who teaches, works at Mattel, and/or most agencies & some studios) and you got winter vacation?  Not just a day or two but two whole giant weeks?  THAT was a blast.  If you ask my dad he will tell you all about how I would shake on Christmas morning because I was so excited to see what Santa brought me.  THAT was fun too!  I’m not a giant enormous fan of Christmas but I can’t deny it’s a blast.  A blast as long as it follows the rules of season and holiday etiquette.  I feel like this year Christmas has bullied poor little Thanksgiving into giving up it’s time in the spotlight.

As an adult I will tell you that Christmas colors aren’t nearly as pretty as Thanksgiving colors.  Fall always wins the pretty color palate debate.  All those browns, oranges, yellows, and greens.  Softer and easier on the eyes then the bright reds, greens, golds, and white.  I’m not ready for the shocking colors of Winter I’m still relaxed into the soothing tones of Autumn.  Which gets me to my point.  A point which will ultimately divide my readership into supporters and non-supporters.  Who said it was okay to put Christmas decorations out so early?  Did everyone forget Thanksgiving?  How soon is too soon to start this X-mas celebration?

When did the traditional timeline of post-Thanksgiving get moved up to decorating post-Halloween?  I just took my Halloween house flag down last weekend and now I’m supposed to skip by the cute turkey one and head right to the santa one?  Bah humbug I say!  Turkeys deserve their ornamental time!  A couple of weeks ago I drove by the Citadel (an outlet mall in LA) and there was a GIANT red bow on the front of the building.  Granted it was magical all lit up but it is showing itself WAY WAY WAY too early.  This week I noticed Pasadena had gotten out their holiday decorations along with their lights that make the street into a winter wonderland of light flakes (aka snowflakes made by giant lights vs. snow).  Again … I love those.  It’s fun to walk to Bar Method and skip through fake giant light flakes but it’s TOO EARLY!  Last week I went to the Americana on Brand (another mall) and the giant tree is already up and decorated.  ALREADY UP!!!!!!

What’s the rush?  I will give you Hanukkah.  That holiday is crazy early this year so I would allow some blue and white to sneak into the Fall scheme but Christmas needs to back off.  Maybe it’s the short shopping season (so I hear) that has the stores trying to push an early start on us.  Not a good excuse.  Haven’t they heard the saying “too much of a good thing isn’t a good thing.” — Okay that isn’t at all how the saying goes but you get my point.   I love the magical Christmas time but not for 3 months before the actual holiday.  Cool your jets people.  You know who you are.  You people who already have the Christmas channel as your default on your car radio.  You are almost to Thanksgiving.  Stay strong.  You can do it.