divine angst

Our downstairs neighbors have their Christmas stuff up already.

In a way, this is heartening–they (or at least one of them) is a Christmas junkie like me! In another way, it’s just depressing. When did it become OK to put up Christmas stuff before Thanksgiving?^[1]

I asked Mr. Angst the other day when I could put up the Christmas stuff because in the past, he’s been hesitant to decorate too early. He said, “Well, not before Thanksgiving, of course!” and I replied, “Well, DUH.” Because that’s the fact–DUH. You just don’t decorate your house for Christmas until after Thanksgiving.

I’m sure this basic tenet of holiday decorating has very practical roots, too–who, after all, has time to decorate for the holidays when they are preparing for turkey, dressing, potatoes, sauce, gravy, pie, and people? AFTER the turkey is eaten and put away into the freezer or sent home with the guests–THEN you can start to think about pulling out the holly and greenery. But not before.

I know retailers don’t buy into this restriction because I saw Christmas stuff up before Halloween. But at least some holiday vendors know to wait–the parking lot around the corner is a Christmas tree lot in December and, while they have the candy-striped sawhorses up already, THERE ARE NO TREES. Why? Because you’re not supposed to put your tree up before Thanksgiving! DUH!

So I guess I’ll continue to feel ambivalent about our downstairs neighbors. Because it’s a great big YAY that they are into the holidays, but it’s also a great big NOOOOO that they aren’t into the holidays enough to realize that not waiting kills the holiday.^[2]

1. It’s not like this year’s Thanksgiving is even a LATE Thanksgiving. I mean, it’s on the 23rd, only two days later than the earliest it could be! ↩
2. This is the crux of it all–only children think the world would be perfect if it were Christmas all the time. When you grow up, though, you are supposed to realize that the reason Christmas is so great is because it only comes once a year and it’s a very special, limited-time-only thing. Anticipation is half the fun, y’all. ↩