When it comes to when is the correct time to start putting up Christmas
decorations, I am a traditionalist more or less. I think no one should sell or put up
anything specifically to do with Christmas until the day after Thanksgiving. Then after Christmas, sale items like Christmas wrapping paper should only be sold up until the end of January. That
was the tradition when I was young.
The neighborhood I lived in always
put up Christmas lights over the main avenue; while they were put up a
few days ahead of time, they were never lit up until the day after
Thanksgiving (which was known then as "the day after Thanksgiving - not
as Black Friday). On that Friday, all the retailers started to put out
items for Christmas, run Christmas sales, the big stores like Macy's and Gimble's had Santa Claus in their stores for pictures with children (in fact those two stores essentially had Santa competitions on their window displays and Santa would appear in each of their windows on a schedule), Xmas tree vendors could be found hawking their
trees curbside just about anywhere, the huge tree would be turned on at Rockefeller Center, and Salvation Army bell ringers would be out in any weather ringing the bell to collect donations outside of busy stores. Of course, the memories from my young years through my twenties and then again later in my thirties up until 5 years ago, were formed in NY City and on Long Island. New York City may be a slime hole and be a crime ridden den of thieves, muggers, rapist and murderers but at Christmas time it can also be magnificent and a trip to St. Patrick's Cathedral and to the observation deck of the Empire State Building were almost always things I would do. Dinner in Chinatown often followed. Yes Christmas traditions are a good thing and of course, spending Christmas with family and was the best thing.
I think one of the reasons the country is so screwed is because
of the loss of tradition. That in my estimation is caused by spoiled brats who have ruined everything
by insisting on everything being their way, and they cannot stand traditions or at least good traditions. Once they start whining, it seems retailers follow their lead on just about anything that they can sell (just look at the store with a name akin to Bullseye, they were selling all that LGBTQ type children's stuff when the LGBTQ crowd and the democrats were whining last year about transgender rights and holding transvestite shows in grammar schools (I am also for the tradition of tarring & feathering miscreants😂). Of course, retailers also sell early to make the big bucks before their competitors, again regardless of tradition.
As for me this
year, I am thinking of getting a small live tree and decorating it. I'll probably do that soon after Thanksgiving (once the Christmas buying frenzy dies down a bit after Black Friday). I hope it to be something my son will
replant in his backyard to remember me after I am gone; hopefully I won't be gone for many years yet to come. I also hope the tree, like our memories, will have grown nicely and be a joy to behold for my son's future Christmas celebrations. By the way, he already planted the one I gave him last year (or maybe it was two years ago).
As far as Christmas shopping goes, I have not always been that traditional. I have been known to start shopping for Christmas, in August, but not for anything specifically geared toward Christmas. I started that many years ago after watching Crazy Eddy commercials. Crazy Eddie was a NYC electronics retailer with some great a bit of off the wall commercials that just got me going out early ad doing some of my Christmas shopping in August. Mostly though, I wait until after Thanksgiving and it is a rare Christmas Eve that I do not go shopping for at least one present at the last minute. I may have misssed one or two shopping sprees on Christmas Eve over all my years since I have been around 12 years old (probably younger) but shopping on Chistmas Eve is a tradition I hope never to stop for as long as I live.
All the best,
Glenn B
