You’ve already seen them. The Christmas trees, decorations, and other festive accessories that fill the halls of residence before the 1st of December! Nottingham’s Winter Wonderland opened on the 7th of November, almost 2 months before the big day, and don’t get me started on the Christmas songs that can already be heard in supermarkets.
The warm twinkly lights, fresh Christmas tree pine smell, and hot chocolates are only a few sights and smells that entice us all to the festive season. On top of this, there’s the excitement of giving and receiving gifts that fills us with joy! All these things add to people’s Christmas traditions and memories which last a lifetime. For most, Christmas is an exciting time of the year.
However, some people say that with Christmas starting earlier and earlier each year, the holiday becomes centred around businesses making money, that it’s basically a scheme. If Christmas is about spending time with family and friends and making memories, then surely there’s no reason to be even thinking about buying Christmas presents or doing festive activities at a minimum a month before Christmas. Don’t you agree?
So much of the festive season is focused on panic. What if the specific shop doesn’t have the 1 thing mum asked for? What if they don’t have the correct size? What if people don’t have the time to meet up all together in the short period that is the 24 days before Christmas? So many what-ifs lead people to hang on to the festivities like they have a looming expiry date.
Then, the question needs to be asked. When is the correct time to be putting up your Christmas decorations? And therefore, when should we begin to celebrate the festive season?
The latest I’ve heard of people putting up their decorations has been Christmas Eve which I personally think is a bit too late. In America, some people put theirs up straight after Thanksgiving! The popularisation of putting Christmas decorations up early has its history in Covid-times when people wanted something to lift their spirits and with too much time on our hands, it seemed like the perfect solution. With no end in sight, putting up the tree and decorations seemed like the perfect answer to create a more positive outlook and I do believe it worked. However, as we’ve moved on from that time, perhaps we can try and hold off on the decorations during November!
The ‘traditional’ time to put up your decorations is the 1st Sunday of Advent (which this year is the 3rd of December). This time seems reasonable. According to this tradition, you should have them till the 6th of January which is when allegedly the three wise men arrived. If you keep them up any longer, you could get back luck! There’s no real harm in early preparations, but the feeling of putting up decorations is unique to the season.
By putting up tinsel, baubles, and snowflakes early, are we not pre-emptively diluting the magical feeling that comes with Christmas?
Whenever you decide to put up your decorations, I hope they bring festive joy and happiness!
(But not in November!)