How Early is Too Early for Christmas?

Story by Paris Dozier. Photo courtesy of publicdomainpictures.net.

According to a study by people.com, 51% of Americans finish up their Christmas shopping on Christmas Eve. Yeah, a whopping one day before Christmas. Never in my life, though, has this stopped companies from beginning Christmas sales and advertisements months before December starts. Of course there’s no real wrong answer to this question, but let's see when people think we should start decorating.

Traditionally, Christmas decorations are supposed to go up on Advent, the fourth Sunday before Christmas. The word “advent” was developed by Christians to refer to the time of waiting before the birth of Christ. If Christmas is the day Christ was born, it makes sense that preparing for Christmas is the same time that past Christians prepared for the birth of Christ. This year Advent fell on November 28, so I’d say it’s pretty safe to begin decorating now.

When thinking more practically about when to start decorating, I still think that late November to early December may reign supreme. At least for your tree that is. Most sources I saw agree that real Christmas trees remain healthy for about 4-5 weeks after being cut, so if you’re planning on getting one right after Halloween you may want to backtrack a bit. However, if you have an artificial tree, are putting your tree up later, or aren’t putting one up at all, you have much more freedom to do as you like. 

When do you begin putting up Christmas decorations? Like I said, there’s no right or wrong answer as to when you should start. Some people begin feeling the Christmas spirit in October while others don’t do anything even relating to the holiday until a week before it happens. When you start is purely up to you and what you want! Besides, who is some early holiday joy really hurting?

Paris Dozier is a 7th grade scholar at Friendship Woodridge International School.