The Hallo-Thanks-Mas Tree

Every year the holiday's seem to begin to blend together sooner than the year before. Once October hits we are bombarded with Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas all at once. In my opinion I think Thanksgiving kind of gets the shaft.  This year, I went the week of Thanksgiving to find some decor and couldn't find anything, in three stores!  Plus, throw in the Black Friday madness starting at 2pm on Thanksgiving Day in some places, I mean, I haven't even eaten my turkey by 2pm!  Thanksgiving should just be changed to "Over eat and spend money you don't need to spend Day".  I will admit that when I start seeing Christmas decorations before Halloween, I think "come on people, let us enjoy the other TWO holidays before I have to start thinking about presents", but then again, I AM that person who also, after Thanksgiving dinner and time with the family, and after I've put my kids to bed, will head to the stores late that night to see what kind of deals I can find.  It's all about sticking to that holiday budget friends!   Now lets talk about The Hallo-Thanks-Mas Tree? This year Halloween ended and the next day I saw photos of friends putting up their Christmas tree. See, Thanksgiving Shafted.  So, it drives the question, when is the right time to put up Christmas?  Traditionally, for a lot of a families, I know the day after Thanksgiving is pretty common for setting up Christmas. Everyone is together, you've celebrated being Thankful for all you have and spending time as a family to put up Christmas seems to fall right into place the next day.  Stores are already decked out in holiday decor, Christmas tree lighting's are happening all over your city and of course, the pre-holiday sales pulling at your wallet strings to start stocking up on presents from Santa.  The holidays have officially been unable to separate themselves. My husband and I were talking about the tree situation and I was sharing how shocked I was to see tree's up on November 1st when he asked, "Whats the difference between November 1st or November 25th and Why does it matter?" (Insert sarcastic eye roll)  His question however sparked a thought in my mind that I've been pondering ever since. Why are people setting up their trees so early?  The conclusion I came to allowed my heart and mind to be changed and to see what the tree really symbolizes for many families! 
Last year, we were one of those "premature tree setter-upper" families.  I was 8 months pregnant and we drove past a Christmas tree farm that was set up the week before Thanksgiving. I explained to my husband I wanted to enjoy the tree as long as I could and if this baby came early (like my other two had) I wouldn't have the energy to be setting up/worrying about Christmas in the weeks to come.  He hesitantly agreed and we went home with a beautiful 9 ft flocked Christmas tree.  There we were, 7 days before Thanksgiving with our whole home ready for Christmas.

So why do people do it?  The above example is the reason I believe Christmas is becoming the Hallow-Thanks-Mas two month long holiday!  I had told my husband I wanted to "enjoy the tree" as long as possible, but was it really about the tree?  No!  I believe the reason people are so anxious to set up Christmas is because of the feeling that Christmastime brings to families in homes all over the world.  During Christmas our home is filled with twinkling lights, a warm fireplace, holiday smells, happy music, yummy treats and drinks, extra snuggles and laughs. The children have stars in their eyes as they write letters to Santa and anxiously await his reply. We do weekly outings as a family to see beautiful Christmas light displays, we ride the Polar Express, take a sleigh ride through town, sled down big hills, build snowmen, build gingerbread houses and make traditional treats for our friends and neighbors.  Also in our home, a little elf visitor hangs around all month so our kids behavior is the BEST during the holidays as they work extra hard to prove to Santa what good kids they are.  On top of all these wonderful traditions and holiday activities, our family also spends a lot of time focusing on the true meaning of Christmas, the birth of Christ.  Christmas hymns, live nativities, learning about Christ's birth and serving others during the holidays, allows an even warmer spirit and feeling to be present during this month.

Am I crazy? Who wouldn't' want to have this type of feeling present in their home ALL YEAR!?  Makes sense, doesn't it?  Maybe a new family member is on the way, maybe this will be Grandpa's last Christmas or it's babies first. Maybe it's the first Christmas in a families new home, or the last Christmas in an old one.  Perhaps they'll be hosting family members or a family less fortunate.  I think the Christmas spirit is one of the most magical and special feelings you can have in your home.  Big or small, rich or poor, Catholic or Christian, black or white it doesn't matter. For those of us who celebrate Christmas, I think we can all agree it's the spirit of Christmas and the joy in our homes, around our towns and throughout the world that make setting up that tree a little earlier, perfectly acceptable. 

the most wonderful time of the year.

If you haven't caught on by now... I'm a HUGE holiday Junkie!  I love to celebrate every holiday, even holidays as ridiculous-ly AWESOME as St. Patricks Day, Earth Day or National Donut day. Christmas has my heart though. With a birthday just nine days before Christmas, growing up, the whole month of December seemed to be one long party of celebrating! I loved it. My parents did an incredible job making every holiday super special and Christmas was filled with tree cutting and decorating, a trip to the snow, Christmas cookies, caroling, riding the Fire Trucks with Santa, visiting a nativity, Dove Court Christmas lights and countless other festive activities all month long.  So of course, no one would expect nothing less from me as December rolled on in and I jumped right into some holiday traditions with my little gang.
We attended the Christmas lighting at The Riverwoods in Provo where the kids were first to meet Santa this year.

We had our two big SNOW DAYS filled with shoveling the driveway, snow angels and even a ride on our neighbors sled! 

We setup our Christmas tree, OK so maybe it was set up a few days before December, but we finally got around to putting the ribbon on and a few handmade ornaments from Hunter.

We took our children to The Living Nativity in Alpine and it was such a neat experience to see the children observe baby Jesus lying his manger. #thereasonfortheseason

This year we finally got tickets to ride The Polar Express on the Heber Valley Railroad.  This experience did not disappoint. We had heard so many wonderful reviews and after a few nights of reading the book and watching the movie, the children were ecstatic to ride the train.  Singing Christmas carols, hot chocolate, cookies and Santa.  What more could you ask for in a holiday activity?

We've also snuck in a few extra visits with Santa. Hunter really wants to make sure he knows he wants Jake Legos and Wild Kratts toys!  Hayden's asked for an orange twice so I think Santa will be able to manage that! 

And a few Holiday treats! 

Including Peppernausse with Grandma Carol 

(stay tuned for a good family history lesson about these)

Sugar Cookies for our neighbors.

And we tried our hands at my favorite holiday treat, Chocolate Peanut Butter Balls.

With Christmas only 10 days away we have lots more time to make lots more memories with lots more fun holiday activities! 
We'd love to hear some of your favorite holiday activities that you do with your families during this season!