Well, it’s that time of year again when I complain about Christmas. Yup, I’m the jerk that complains that we play Christmas music too much and for way too long. Now I’m back to complain about how long we celebrate Christmas, and please, if you believe that we don’t celebrate Christmas enough, just remember you’re wrong. 

We celebrate Christmas way too early. Christmas is still over a month away, and when I walked into a local grocery store, I saw Christmas decorations up already. It’s like we already forgot about the fact that Thanksgiving still hasn’t even happened yet.

Thanksgiving is a time to be thankful, and you get to spend the day with your family. Yet, we continuously overlook this holiday for a day of presents. Thanksgiving gets treated like a second-class holiday, like flag day or something. The minute that Halloween ends, everyone immediately starts their Christmas celebrations only to pause for 12 hours so that they can stuff turkey down their mouths, then it’s back to Christmas shopping on Black Friday.

The over the top fascination with Christmas needs to stop until, at the earliest, after Thanksgiving. We don’t need a two month long Christmas. Each month gets their own holiday, and each holiday should be celebrated accordingly. In October, we celebrate Halloween; in November, we celebrate Thanksgiving. In December, then and only then, should we celebrate Christmas. When we jump right to Christmas, we diminish how important Thanksgiving actually is.

Thanksgiving in my family is when everyone went to my parent’s house and spent time catching up on the past year. We bonded over food and laughter as we shared everything that we had gone through. Memories of funny stories from the past were always shared while everyone sat around the table eating turkey. When we spend all of November building up to Christmas, it cheapens how wonderful Thanksgiving is as a holiday.

I also believe that we have cheapened the meaning of Christmas by continually celebrating it for two months. Without getting into any religious aspects, Christmas is meant to be a day where families come together and celebrate. By putting all this pressure into the holiday, we make it more about the presents we get than the true meaning of the day.

The two-month escapade of Christmas causes many companies to work in their best deals of the year. We naturally see the advertisements from these companies and instantly want those toys. We start leaving hints for our friends and family to get us these toys we want, hoping that they get us our perfect present.

If the present we want isn’t under our Christmas tree, it typically ruins at least a portion of our day. Then we spend the rest of Christmas trying to figure out how we can get that present so we can show it to all of our pals. This is not what the holiday is for.

Look, I understand I may seem like the Grinch when it comes to how I celebrate the Christmas holiday. I do believe that if you take a break and celebrate each holiday in their individual months, and treat Christmas as a family holiday, you will get the most out of this holiday season.