Holiday Decoration: The Debate

September is the beginning of the fall holidays and people get ready with colors, Pumpkins, acorns, lights, and frost which begs the question. When is it too early to decorate for the holidays?

Some say never, some have a multitude of answers from 2 weeks to a month. Personally, I’m never jolly, festive or pumped for any holiday, even my birthday. The only reason I like any holiday is for movie and TV show marathons. Especially Halloween as I’m a lifelong horror movie fan, and New Year’s Eve for The Twilight zone Marathon.  

On the other side of the coin, my wife is the epitome of festivity. We have more decorations than your Aunt Karen, we go to Spirit Halloween more than anyone ever should, and September is go time for Halloween decorations. Same goes December with Christmas. I say that with love, and I’m more than happy to drag each tote of décor from the crawl space upstairs to transform our humble home into holiday central.  

To my personal dismay, I see stores lay out decoration ideas for holidays that are months and months away which begs me to ask the question above: How early is too early for holiday decorations? I stood in a line at Hobby Lobby checkout 2 weeks before July seeing “let it snow” signs with Frosty the Snowman, snowflakes, and hot cocoa as we still need to get through 3 major holidays before Christmas and not to mention it’s 90 degrees outside.

 Call me crazy, call me a Scrooge, but l feel like the cardinal rule is 3 weeks. 3 weeks on either side of any holiday in question. I’ve stood by this for as long as I remember. I think it started when I was a child. Childhood trauma? Nay sir. I just sat there after Christmas, with a real Christmas tree, rotting with needles everywhere after vacuuming constantly, and seeing Christmas stuff in lawns into February, and especially in Montana, Christmas lights that go on someone’s house and never come down for the rest of the year, or forever for that matter.

 The 3-week rule for Christmas ends on my birthday, January 13th. It's plus or minus 3 weeks, but it’s a good measure in my eyes and it was the basis for my holiday rule.  One can apply it to any holiday. 

Let me know your thoughts and rules for the holidays on the app or on our website.