MOORHEAD — As a self-proclaimed Thanksgiving hater, I personally find no issues with prepping for Christmas immediately after Halloween. In my family, Christmas cookies alone are a full-day event. We spend a whole day baking and everyone goes home with large containers full of different types of cookies. There are sugar cookies for the youngest kids to decorate, which usually turn out as piles of multi-colored sprinkles. We make chocolate-covered peanuts, chocolate thumbprints, and dipped Oreos. We have a big family gathering on Christmas Eve where we eat pizza and exchange gifts. Christmas has always been my favorite holiday because of my family traditions, and I love getting gifts for the people in my life.
In Minnesota, it gets cold and often snows long before Thanksgiving rolls around, so it is easy to begin thinking about the winter holidays early. Getting excited about the holidays can help people have something to look forward to in the cold and dark months of winter. According to an article from Today, decorating for Christmas can increase happiness. The bright lights and colors of Christmas decor may increase dopamine. Some of the happy feelings can also be attributed to nostalgia and happy childhood memories of the holiday season.
Halloween and Christmas tend to be two of the most exciting holidays for me and others my age. There are many fun traditions associated with each celebration that occur outside of the actual day itself.
For Halloween there is the whole process of planning and putting a costume together, watching scary movies and going to fun spooky experiences like a haunted house. In terms of Christmas, there are many songs and movies, decorating the tree and putting up lights and picking out or making gifts for the people you love.
Thanksgiving as a holiday does not have much in terms of extra traditions. On the day of Thanksgiving, there is the Macy’s Parade and some football games on TV. It is nice to have a day to gather for a meal with your family, but that is about it. It could be argued that Thanksgiving also has Black Friday but that is less of a holiday tradition and more of a celebration of rampant consumerism. People usually use the Black Friday sales as a way to get a lot of Christmas presents early at cheaper prices.
The way I see it, Halloween gets the month of Oct., then the winter holiday season begins on Nov. 1. There is a short break from the Christmas preparations for Thanksgiving day. After Thanksgiving, it’s full Christmas mode with decorations and music everywhere.
Truthfully, putting up your Christmas tree right after Halloween does not really hurt anybody. The winter season is cold and dark and that weighs heavy on most people. Everyone deserves to cope with seasonal depression in a way that helps them. If listening to Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christamas Is You” repeatedly on Nov. 1 is the thing that makes someone happy, then I do not see a problem with it.
