The perfect time to begin your holiday festivities starts when spooky season ends. No one can deny the magical feeling of warm apple pie and hot cocoa on a cold winter night. So why would we wait for this feeling to arrive? The majority of people wait until only a couple weeks before the actual holidays to get into their holiday spirit, but we assert this time frame is way too short.

The purpose of starting your holiday season earlier is to give you the chance to put energy into creating the magic of being with friends and family, both given and chosen. It doesn’t mean you need to play Mariah Carey Christmas on November 1st, but there are a lot of other holiday traditions you can begin. For example, putting up holiday lights, planning your holiday parties, sending out your holiday cards, and giving time to spend at Friendsgiving or Secret Snowflakes.

Some people think starting early is falling prey to consumerism as stores who begin putting out their holiday products during Halloween. Though, they are onto something because they know everyone wants to begin celebrating early. So don’t let the stores stop you from getting into your holiday spirit. 

There is also a feeling of being rushed during the busy holiday season, especially since this year when Thanksgiving was so late in November. Therefore, starting early helps people avoid the extra stress brought this time of the year.

Thanksgiving and the holidays are a time to focus on being grateful for family or friends and celebrating tradition. You don’t have to prepare for the holidays early, but why limit it to one month when you can extend it to two? The whole point is that we want to experience the magical feeling of the holidays for as long as possible. Ideally, this is how we would live the entire year. But please, it’s okay, no, it’s really okay if you only wear your ugly Christmas sweater one day of the year