Each year, as the season shifts from summer to fall, the holiday festivities begin. Within a time span of four months, many celebrate holidays such as Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Although the eagerness to start preparing for the celebrations has begun to settle in, it is crucial that each individual holiday is enjoyed in its full glory before jumping right to the next. During mid-October, one would expect to see the store stocked with pumpkins, candy, costumes, and other Halloween decorations. Instead, the stores are filled with Christmas trees, stockings, candy canes, and just about everything else needed to celebrate Christmas. If you wanted to go to the store to pick out a pumpkin to carve, it would be too late–they are nowhere in sight. Instead, you are greeted with an overwhelming sensation of being at the North Pole. It is simply too early to begin to celebrate Christmas and here’s why:

• It takes focus away from the other holidays

Christmas is an amazing holiday, but it is significantly more glorified than Halloween and Thanksgiving. If all the focus and attention goes into the decoration and planning for Christmas, then there is great potential to not experience the same excitement for the other holidays. In a way, they may seem overlooked. The fact that there is an apparent amount of difficulty when it comes to buying supplies for the upcoming holiday is ridiculous. Christmas is still more than a month away and the time to appreciate the other holidays is much needed. Not only is it challenging to properly decorate and prepare for holidays other than Christmas, but it is also a struggle to maintain certain family traditions that come with each holiday. The more that Christmas is prematurely celebrated, the more forgotten the others are, which could result in under celebration.

• It creates disappointment

Not only does the extensive preparation for Christmas undermine the other holidays, but it can also create an extreme sense of disappointment when it is over. If one plans for months to celebrate a single day, it may turn out to be upsetting or underwhelming when all is said and done. The build-up of putting all of your time into decorating and preparing suddenly is over and much less eventful than anticipated. In a way, Christmas is the finale of all holidays. It wraps up the year and spreads joy to many. In no way should there be a feeling of unhappiness associated with it after preparing for months on end, so much so that you underappreciate the other holidays–this can not only leave one feeling blue, but also regretful, as one may look back and realize all of the great times that could have come out of the holidays leading up to Christmas. 

• It dims the Christmas spirit

Finally, Christmas should not be celebrated too early because it has the potential to dim one’s Christmas spirit. The bright lights, the Christmas music, the holiday cookies: these are several Christmas staples. They are what truly give off the essence of the Christmas spirit. They are reserved for a sacred time of year: Christmas time. If all of these delicacies are enjoyed for months, then they aren’t as special. By the time Christmas actually rolls around, some may even find themselves changing the radio station because they’re tired of listening to the Christmas classics. Over-preparation is a significant reason why people may feel burnt out and not as jolly when the actual holiday arises. Not only can this affect your mood, but it can also affect those around you. 

It is uncalled for to have Christmas be celebrated in October. October should be dedicated to Halloween, November to Thanksgiving, and December to Christmas. Christmas is no more important than the other holidays. It can clearly create a ton of issues if celebrated too early. Luckily, there is an easy fix to all of these major issues: simply don’t celebrate Christmas too prematurely! Glorify the other holidays–allow Christmas to be the finale of the year. This way, it won’t take all of the attention, it won’t create disappointment, and it won’t dim the sacred Christmas spirit.