Tis the Season!

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I consider myself a purist when it comes to the holidays. Twenty five days of Christmas! No more, no less. Once the Thanksgiving feast was over, then and only then did I find it acceptable to listen to Christmas music. It’s a special holiday with its very own month and my family respected, cherished, and stood by it. But society changed things, changed them dramatically and I can no longer ignore the truth. All the retail outlets, advertisers, restaurants and community leaders have pushed up the holiday season. Christmas is not just a month; once Halloween is over the holiday decorations get rolled out and Santa comes to town. For years I fought it, but I love Christmas too much. Time for a change, time to embrace it all! Tis the season!

Here in Los Angeles, it rarely feels like the holiday season I knew as a kid. Last week we had temperatures close to 90 degrees, but sure enough all those Christmas decorations went up! That’s what is so great about this holiday, everything looks better with lights. A nip in the air really puts a bow on things for me and with the temperature dropping this week, I’m getting in the spirit! First thing is first. Embracing this new pre-Thanksgiving Christmas tradition starts with decorating my apartment! My man and I go out of town for the holidays, but that doesn’t stop us from spreading a little holiday cheer throughout our home. Woo! Nothing beats coming home to a decorated house after traveling for Thanksgiving, so we’ll break out our decorations early again this year, put up our cute little fake tree and give our apartment a splash of holiday cheer. Complete with lights of course! We’ll be all decked out for Christmas and ready to fill the tree with presents.

There’s early and then there’s too early. If you spend Thanksgiving at your own home, then you probably don’t want your Christmas decorations up prior to Thursday’s feast. And you definitely don’t want the judging eyes of aunts and uncles raining down upon you. Don’t worry! Even if you don’t get your decorations up pre Thanksgiving, you can still get into the holiday spirit. Hello, Starbucks and The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf break out their holiday drinks staring November 1st. Love them! I’m a sucker for the skinny peppermint mocha, and who can forget the gingerbread latte! At Coffee bean they have a delish no sugar added toffee nut latte too. Yumm. Holiday drinks warm your body as well as your soul!

The absolute best way to embrace the holiday spirit is of course with Christmas movies! They are simply wonderful and can’t come soon enough. Yah! ABC Family has their 25 days of Christmas starting December 1st, but you know they’ll have a countdown to their countdown of Christmas starting as soon as Thanksgiving ends! Both Hallmark Channel and Lifetime play the classic Christmas movies and let’s face it, when it comes to holiday films, the cheesier the better. And if you want to go see one in the movie theater, The Best Man Holiday film just came out last weekend. Tons of people already got in the holiday spirit, so what are you waiting for?

I have one final hurdle in my quest to embrace the pre-Thanksgiving Christmas tradition. Holiday music before Black Friday… I’ll be honest, I’m stuck. I still can’t bring myself to listen to Holiday music just yet! I’m going to break it out when decorating, but then put it away until Black Friday morning. I like to savor my Christmas music, soak it all in when it fits. I blast it from Dec 1st to Dec 25th! Nonstop please. Pandora has some amazing Christmas stations and several radio stations will go all Holiday all the time starting very soon. Not to mention Kelly Clarkson has a new Christmas album out; damn I’m getting excited!

I know I know, it’s still a week before Thanksgiving, but there’s no way around it. Christmas is in the air! The holiday season has kicked off and I’m on board. Don’t fight it. Embrace it! Enjoy it! Savor it! Christmas is still only once a year, so why not live it up. Decorations are up at malls and the commercials are in full swing! The holidays are here, now through the end of the year. Tis the season!

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