Christmas is great. I love the movies, the cookies, snuggling up with hot chocolate next to a fire. But there is a time and place for all of this celebrating, and Christmas should be celebrated after Thanksgiving.

As soon as the leaves turn red and fall to the ground, it seems as though everybody is done with the fall time. Autumn is a beautiful time of year, a magical period where you need a jacket but doesn’t need to break out the winter coat quite yet, where the world is full of hues of yellows and oranges and the air is crisp. The smell of rain and leaves? Come on. You can’t skip over all of that. 

Thanksgiving, in my opinion, is also an underrated holiday. It’s like Christmas, but without the stress! It’s just family getting together and eating lots of good food together. It’s a chance for me to see my cousins that live across the country, for me and my brother to sit down for dinner together, and for me to see my dad and my mom in the same day. You can’t skip over Thanksgiving.

I know how wonderful Christmas is, but anything can get old after celebrating it for two months. November and December? That’s too long to celebrate basically anything. I think Thanksgiving is an appropriate time, at the very soonest, to begin putting up lights and decorating the tree; and if you think about it, if you get a tree that early it will not be as fresh Christmas day, and that is arguably the most essential part. Christmas music for two months? “Rudolph the Rednose Reindeer” for two months? That seems just a tad excessive. 

I’m not here to rain on the holiday season parade, but all I’m saying is you won’t catch me putting on Christmas music or watching “Elf” anytime soon, because the holiday season should be savored.