Why limit Christmas to one day when it can be all year?
Ever go shopping for Halloween decorations and find them placed near Christmas decorations? It seems that Christmas decorations are arriving in stores earlier and earlier. Recently, I went to Hobby Lobby for some craft supplies and I overheard the conversation between an older woman and her companion.
“Can you believe there are Christmas decorations right next to the Halloween decorations?! It’s ridiculous,” said the woman. “It isn’t even Thanksgiving yet and they already put out Christmas stuff?!”
This got me to wonder, what’s so wrong with having Christmas decorations on display in October? She seemed offended but I couldn’t figure out what was offensive about it. Then I thought, maybe it’s offensive to her because she doesn’t celebrate Christmas. Which, in that case, is understandable.
But I’ve also heard other people, who do celebrate Christmas, complain about seeing the decorations “too early.” These people think putting Christmas decorations out before December kind of takes away the attention from other holidays like Halloween and Thanksgiving.
Personally, I like seeing Christmas decorations, regardless of what month it is. During Christmas time, people seem like better people. Perhaps the display of Christmas decorations has something to do with that. It seems as though Christmas decorations influence people to uphold the Christmas spirit.
During Christmas time, people tend to participate in random acts of kindness, be more generous and show more patience. The truth is, society would be in a better mental state if more people contributed to these practices year-round.
I know of one woman who has her house decorated Christmas themed year-round, and she is a happy woman! She’s kind, loves life, and if nothing else I would describe her as “jolly.” Who wouldn’t be with that kind of positive influence hanging from their walls year-round?
At Christmas time, especially, we go out of our way to make the people we love happy. I’ve been at the mall and heard a woman ask her husband for something to which he replied “no.” Then, she fluttered her eyelashes, pouted her bottom lip, and softly, yet convincingly, explained “But… it’s Christmas…” To which the husband sighed with a smile and the exasperated reply of, “Alriiiiiiiiight!”
Whatever the woman wanted was not that big of a deal to begin with, but when she reminded her husband it was Christmas, he decided to make her happy. The world could really use the kind of generosity that Christmas brings year-round, with pauses for other holidays such as Valentine’s Day, Thanksgiving and even St. Patrick’s Day.
To deny the fact that Christmas time encourages kind-hearted behavior would be preposterous. So, if we can acknowledge that it does encourage good behavior, why should we limit that kind of goodness to one month out of the year? I say the new “norm” should be that we keep Christmas decorations and the Christmas-spirit going from January all the way through December.
