Picture this: you walk into your local mall to go shopping for a new outfit with your friends. You look around and notice the bright lights and decorations twinkling before you, all of the different sized Christmas trees lined up in a row, and all of the extravagant holiday scented lotions you could pick from in a bucket by the counter. You watch the costumers pick out holiday themed wrapping paper to cover the gifts they are about to purchase. You look at all of these things, and your face turns into a sour expression of disgust. The problem? It’s only the first week of November.
I was sitting in my room on Halloween and happened to turn on the TV just as the Hershey kisses Christmas commercial started playing. Disgusted, I flicked to the next channel and to my surprise, a Christmas movie marathon was on a loop for the entire weekend. At that point, I gave up on the TV all together. Don’t get me wrong, I love Christmas and the holiday season as much as the next person does. However, why do people feel the need to rush the holiday? When the first of February comes around, people start decorating for Valentine’s Day. When the first of October comes around, people start getting ready for Halloween. Christmas seems to be the only holiday that is celebrated almost two months in advance.
November is the month to celebrate Thanksgiving. This holiday is even the beginning of the holidays to come that are dedicated to spending time with family and loved ones, like Christmas and New Year’s. Thanksgiving is when families can get together over a great Thanksgiving feast and appreciate what they have. It is just as an important holiday as Christmas when it comes to getting the family together. Even when you go to the store, you have to hunt for any decoration that relates to a turkey, pilgrims, or fall in general. So the question here is, why is Thanksgiving always forgotten about? Could it be there are no extravagant decorations that could be hung? Is it because there are no catchy songs playing on the radio about it that we could sing along to in the car? All I know is that I am excited to go home for Thanksgiving break, be grateful to be able to spend time with my family, and eat as much home-cooked food as I can.
When some people talk about how annoyed they are over people celebrating Christmas in the month of November, they may be called “A Christmas Scrooge.” I don’t think this is true. Everyone loves Christmas and spending time with their families, just like myself. I love Christmas and the rest of the holiday season, but I prefer to celebrate it when it’s time: in December.
Alyssa Thomas is a second-year student majoring in theatre. She can be reached at AT824712@wcupa.edu.