I love Christmas, and even though I’m not religious, I still enjoy the feasts, the tree, and spending time with family. I don’t like how Christmas seems to begin the day after Halloween.
Stores, lined wall to wall with Christmas crap, try to get a ton of people to start their Christmas shopping. Christmas is almost a full 8 weeks after Halloween, 55 days. To put this in perspective, Valentine’s day is just over 7 weeks after Christmas, but I’m not hearing about people making their Valentine’s day plans on the 26th of December.
It’s fair to say that Christmas requires more work and planning than Valentine’s day, but do we really have to start shopping for Christmas almost two months ahead of time?
I have kids, and I get them presents for Christmas, so it’s not that I’m altogether against the gift giving side of Christmas, but I don’t rack up a ton of credit card debt purchasing two month in advance. I buy presents in December, usually about 3 weeks before Christmas, and I’m usually done about 2 weeks before Christmas. This gives me plenty of time to wrap presents. I don’t spend so much money that I lose sleep at night, and more and more I’m trying to buy thoughtful gifts that mean something to the person. Yes, my daughter would love a new huge flat screen mounted on her bedroom wall, but I’m getting her an art desk; she’s an artist. She’ll love the art desk. She would be more elated at first by the flat screen, but the art desk encourages her life goal of being an artist – invaluable. The flat screen in her room only teaches her antisocial behavior and laziness. If my daughter looks back at that moment 10 years from now, she won’t remember how awesome it was to have a huge TV in her room 10 years ago. She will remember how her parents always supported her dream of being an artist.
Yeah, I’m going to continue doing Christmas my way. Christmas isn’t a rap video.
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