Christmas Eve 2006, Saks Fifth Avenue Light Show, NYC
The holidays are quite possibly the most perfect time to live in NYC and soak up all the twinkly lights, beautiful windows and oversized decorations. They are just starting to go up all around me and seeing them transports me right back to many happy memories. I've seen it every year and it never gets old.
While of course there is a lot to do and sometimes holidays can bring a bit of pressure into our already hectic lives, I find the complaints to be a bit of a bummer.
So where do you stand on it? Ar you a holiday holdout or Fa-la-la-la fanatic?
{In case you missed it, don't forget to enter for a chance to win a vintage camera.}
I love your attitude! Let's just embrace it and cast aside any high expectations we have of ourselves decorating and celebrating-wise. Thanks for making me smile!
ReplyDeleteI do love that the Holidays are earlier I think what gets to me is that stores are now opening on Thanksgiving. Seriously, can we not have one day off for people so that everyone can enjoy a day with family or friends? If it was up to me, I would have my Christmas lights on the day after Halloween but my hubby won't go for it. :) NYC at Christmas time looks magical!
ReplyDeleteI'm in the "celebrate one holiday at a time" camp. I love Christmas and the holiday time and I think its the anticipation that makes it that much more fun and special.
ReplyDeleteI am a holiday hold-out. No Christmas before Thanksgiving is the rule in this house. That means no Christmas decorations, no Christmas music, etc. I just love Thanksgiving and I hate that the Christmas season starts on Halloween day. But the day after Thanksgiving, you can bet that I'll be stringing lights, hanging garlands and wreaths and listening to music.
ReplyDeleteI like the decorations and the spirit. What I don't like are the advertisements on TV and on the radio for holiday shopping, or the Christmas music on the radio already. I would like to enjoy Thanksgiving first.
ReplyDeleteFull disclosure - I prefer Thanksgiving over Christmas. Less stress, more family and friends.
Just say Christmas to me and I'm filled with happy thoughts, memories from childhood, and goodwill towards men - and what's not to love about that? I'm so glad our Thanksgiving falls before Halloween because then I can think all things Christmas for the two months leading up to it. I agree though, NYC is magical in wintertime!
ReplyDeleteI agree that Christmas is a beautiful time of year, but I have to admit, I'm one of those that argues that the Christmas season shouldn't start until after Thanksgiving. I love Christmas, but I think it's important to live in the moment and enjoy what's going during present time (autumn, Halloween, Thanksgiving) without always rushing ahead. I try to be a stop and smell the roses kind-of-person!
ReplyDeleteI don't go shopping on Thanksgiving so that part doesn't really appeal to me either. At the same time, with a job shortage, I can't really fault a company who wants to pay people to work on a holiday.
ReplyDeleteIm not really that big into Thanskgiving so maybe thats why I don't have a problem with skipping over it. :)
ReplyDeleteI have on problem with decorating early! I'm all about enjoying the holidays as long as I want to! I have some of our Christmas decorations up on the inside of our house already, but I'll hold out on putting up outside lights until after Thanksgiving.
ReplyDeleteI have NO* problem with decorating early (is what I meant)...
ReplyDeleteI am so excited for Christmas this year and I have no idea why! Ideas for decorating have been swirling around in my head for about a month now and I can't wait to implement them. I am leaning more towards using natural elements with lots of trees and tiny little reindeer. And I am on pins and needles waiting to see your Christmas cards this year. I love the way you think!
ReplyDeleteI was just working on christmas cards yesterday and thought it was a bit early for christmas stuff, especially for this last minute kind a gal (me). But for some reason I was in the mood and inspired and am ordering them today.
ReplyDeleteI do love the season, but also feel the pressure of "getting things done" in time which can get stressful. I agree that Xmas in NYC is magical. When I lived there, I used to like to get up early on a weekend morning, and see all the store windows on 5th Ave when there were very few people around...so much fun!
ReplyDeleteI LOVE Christmas. Being in Canada, our holiday decorating would always start the third weekend in November, when the Santa Clause parade happens in Toronto (though since we had a real tree that always waited until December). I love the holidays starting early, it's such a colourful and cheerful time of the year, and I think people should embrace it.
ReplyDeleteI also love how magical NYC is at Christmas! Me and my Mr met there, and got to spend some time in the city together, our first Christmas as a couple. We hope to bring our sweet girl to experience it all one day, when she's a bit older :)
I am in NYC right now, and we saw some pretty lights last night but commented that they should wait till after Thanksgiving. Turkey day is my favorite, and slowly it is being upstaged by Christmas.
ReplyDeletei want each holiday to be its own. i still have my fall wreath up, and it won't come down until nov 25th, when i'll put the christmas tree up.
ReplyDeletei think it comes from working in advertising, where we were doing holiday ads for magazines in july & august - ugh! nothin' worse than thinking about christmas when it's over 80 outside!
I wrestle with this. I love everything about Christmas especially since it is the one time of year my glitter add is cured but Thanksgiving has been rudely elbowed aside. I just saw a funny cartoon where an angry turkey is shouting at a chagrined looking Santa to "Get his fat a** back in the sled and wait his turn". True.
ReplyDeleteI love Christmas and totally agree with you.. I don't feel any pressure to buy, I just soak it all up like a sponge ..it is just the very best, most innovative scrummy time ever.... well thats until spring is in the air........I love it xxxx
ReplyDeleteAs a late November baby I tend to get the shaft when it came to those lame combined birthday/christmas presents. I used to fight so hard for Thanksgiving to have it's own un-Christmas-ified place in our house. But lately (in just the past few years) I tend to was to bust out the wintry decor earlier and earlier... just as long as it doesn't come before Halloween.
ReplyDeleteI even caught the paper snowflake bug a few days ago and went a little nuts decorating our windows with faux snow... which we never get to see in San Diego. Now I'm impatiently waiting for Home Depot to put out the trees!
http://bontempsbeignet.blogspot.com/2011/11/faux-sneaux-flakes.html
I'm so excited that Christmas fever is here already. I think we're all tired of political and economical woes. I am anyway. I'm excited to forget about those for a while and celebrate by adding a little sparkle to my life.
ReplyDeleteAnd funny you mention New York at Christmastime. I was just telling my husband the other day that visiting New York in December is on my bucket list. I feel like I'm missing out since I've never been.
I'm somewhere in the middle, but overall I think, just like everything else, you have the power to make it be what you want it to be. So, I only do as much as I want, and if I feel it's too stressful then I start saying no and doing less!
ReplyDeleteStores started decorating before Halloween. It's overkill because 1) it's like saying the other holidays before Christmas don't matter, and 2) because you can get tired of it when it's 2 months+ of non-stop Christmas. I prefer for it to only be in December so that I can fully enjoy the other holidays and still build up lots of anticipation for Christmas.
ReplyDeleteAlso, for me, Thanksgiving comes before Halloween. So maybe that's why stores start putting Christmas decorations up so early. But seriously, when you're inundated with snowflakes and twinkly lights when you just want to enjoy the few remaining no-snow days, it's kind of annoying instead of festive. :P
ReplyDeleteFa-la-la-la fanatic here. Though I'm more of a mid-November christmas decoration putter-upper. I only hope I'll be in my house by Christmas (sad lip out as I'm typing).
ReplyDeleteAnd I must echo that there truly is nothing like NYC at Christmas.
I love getting things set up early! It's never to soon to start decorating for Christmas. It is sad taking down the Fall decor though.
ReplyDeleteReally like your outlook! You might be related to Santa! I bet you have access to lots of cool things living in NY! I saw Brooklyn Super Hero Supply on the internet. It looks amazing. Hope you get to check it out. I might wrap my kids presents in a copycat version of their products. On a side note... a box was rescued from the recycling with pertinent address info. The post office will be getting a visit from me soon. Happy Thanksgiving!
ReplyDeleteI love Thanksgiving because it doesn't involve shopping for gifts. It's just a good holiday meal with my family. Christmas, although beautiful adds too much stress to be enjoyed anymore.
ReplyDeleteThe worst of the worst commericals is also back inforce, that crazy Target lady. I could live without that maniac coming back every year.
Fa-la-la-la-la-fanatic here...and I never quite understand why people feel that they can't enjoy Thanksgiving just because there are Christmas decorations up.
ReplyDeleteThanksgiving is perfect because there is no pressure...just a time to count blessings and gather with those you love. We do this with great gusto, every year, surrounded by Christmas decor. It has never seemed to anyone in our family that doing this takes away from Thanksgiving at all. It's just that much more special.
I think any holiday decorating before the middle of December is wayyyyyyy too early. So, I don't understand the decorating in November thing. Who on earth wants a tree in their living room for over a month? Blech! Then again, I have come to hate the whole holiday season more and more with each passing year. I'd prefer we cancel Christmas altogether - or at the very least make it every second year. When I was young I loved it, but now I can't think of a single thing to like about it. Once my Mom is gone (not that I am wishing her gone), I won't have to have it.
ReplyDeleteI love the holidays, and will happily embrace Christmas lights and all other twinkling things as soon as they go up. I don't have a mall anywhere nearby - or any stores for that matter - so everything I see is gloriously non-commercial. I do remember being irked by Christmas decor up too early in stores. I'm already listening to Christmas music at work, but Mike puts a very strict season on the Nutcracker Suite. December 1 and later, only!
ReplyDeleteI love Christmastime, but I feel very strongly about keeping decorations and music for after Thanksgiving. I think the magic of the season (as cheesy as that sounds!) gets diluted when it starts too early.
ReplyDeleteOne other thing, I was in a store in Manhattan last year, a few days BEFORE Christmas, and they already had their Valentine's day decorations out! This kind of commercialization makes me really crazy. I much prefer to be in the moment!
I love the holidays, but I think the commercialism of it all is getting out of hand. Thanksgiving is supposed to be a time when we stop, reflect on all that we have and are grateful for but it seems like the stores and marketers would rather us just skip right over that and instead focus on BUY, STUFF, BUY! As a naturally cynical person I shouldn't be surprised that marketers are pushing for more consumerism earlier in the year, but it's still disheartening, especially since we're at a time when a lot of families have reached a financial low and they're hoping to be able to keep the heat on this winter, nevermind buying Sally and Tommy all those fantastic toys. I guess I just wish they'd hold off until after Thanksgiving, much like Nordstrom is doing this year.
ReplyDeleteI find the people complaining about Christmas coming too soon are more annoying than Christmas coming too soon.
ReplyDeleteI've heard too many people complain about "early christmas" and find THAT super annoying. For me, I love the decorations and the music and the lights. And especially since Daylight savings ends even earlier than it used to, the lights are the best part. It's dark so early already, why not have pretty festive lights up. Lights don't have to mean Christmas, they can just mean winter. I figure, you can gripe about it and just be unhappy, or embrace it and enjoy the festive mood. Why cram it all in to three weeks? That's just too much stress to put things up, then take them down on the "proper" timeline.
ReplyDeleteI'm a holdout. I like to give each holiday it's due. At my house that means Christmas decorations don't go up until Thanksgiving is over. I do like the glitter and fun of the Christmas decorations around the city, though. Great discussion.
ReplyDeleteI'm in the "one holiday at a time" camp. Some of the retail stores have had Christmas stuff out for 2 months already and I find it rather disgusting, honestly. To me, it makes it feel as though by the time Christmas actually does roll around, there is less anticipation and less enthusiasm. Just me though...
ReplyDeleteI love Thanksgiving. I love Christmas. It doesn't bother me that people are already decorating. In other parts of the world, they are in full Christmas swing because they don't have Thanksgiving. To each her own. Personally, I begin decorating for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving, but that's just me. LOVE it.
ReplyDeleteI have become a fa-la-la fanatic. I moved away from the States this year and now suddenly, there's a hole in my holidays where Thanksgiving used to sit. I was torn at first about whether or not to go ahead and celebrate Thanksgiving anyways but decided to skip straight to putting up some of my Christmas decor. Some have humbugged it but I love it anyways. I loved it growing up and I know my family does too. I'm just prolonging the season and happiness.
ReplyDeleteI adore Xmas...But my husband's birthday is on Dec 15th so traditionally we always put up the tree and decorations the weekend after his birthday! Thanksgiving in Canada is in Oct so right after halloween Xmas deco's all come out... and i love it...The more the merrier!!
ReplyDeleteI just wrote about not forgetting Thanksgiving today! I love Thanksgiving, probably because my family comes to my house and I'm in charge of entertaining, which I love. I love the holiday season but like most of the people who commented I like one holiday at a time, I love fall and like to stretch it out as long as possible!! I think I also dread Christmas a little because after it's over I know its a long winter ahead of me...which I admit is my least favorite part of the year.
ReplyDeleteI'm a fa la la la la fanatic. In my culture Thanksgiving is not celebrated ( we do get together now that we live in the US) so for me Christmas is a time of fun...and yes, my Tree has been up for about 8 days now :)
ReplyDeleteI totally agree. I think holding out is part of the fun. There is the anticipation of the day after Thanksgiving as a day to deck the halls! We always bought our tree the weekend after Thanksgiving. And enjoying a good meal with good company is great enough. I feel that waiting and looking forward to the fun of the season is part of the charm of savoring this time of year!
ReplyDeleteI'm a Holiday Hold out! It's not about the hectic-ness or stress of the season it's more about the Christmas season being really special and magical to me and I just feel like by listening to Christmas music and seeing Holiday decor for two months (almost 1/5th of the year!) it kind of takes away from the true Holiday and the meaning come December 25th. I'm so afraid it will lose some of it's whimsy - and that to me is the real spirit of this season. I have gifts on the brain and have already begun my shopping and planning but as for the music, the decor, the food & the spirit - I like to hold out until after Thanksgiving. One Holiday at a time for me please - let's enjoy each one for what it is!
ReplyDeleteThis building is stunning. I was not looking forward to the snow and snow shovelling, but
ReplyDeletelooking at this post and the pretty xmas ornaments post earlier, I can help but start to get excited for the holidays. Thanks!
:)
Mikky
www.todaloos.com
We don't celebrate thanksgiving in Australia, but I can't wait for December 1st when the tree goes up and I go crazy with the decorations!
ReplyDeleteI love the holidays but I want Christmas to start after Thanksgiving. Everyone forgets about Thanksgiving and I love love love that holiday. But the day after I have the holiday music on and I am ready to decorate.
ReplyDeleteWe also wait. The day or 2 after Thanksgiving we go to a tree farm and cut our tree so sometimes it is the first of December before we start decorating.
ReplyDeleteNormally I'm a holdout, mostly because I like my birthday (today) to stand alone for a few days before Thanksgiving and Christmas (selfish, I know!). But now that I have a toddler, the holidays are so much more fun. I started playing Christmas music for him this week!
ReplyDeleteI find that people tend to forget that there is another holiday between Halloween and Christmas. Veteran's Day/ Remembrance day (Canada). I'm all for decorating for the holidays, but I wait until after November 11th to remember our fallen soldiers and troops overseas.
ReplyDeleteChristmas
ReplyDeletedecoration in November, it’s way too early for me! I traditionally follow
Advent, I feel it makes it more special and meaningful. But, I do try to finish
my holiday shopping by December 1st (I'm not always successful though), this
way I beat the stress and can focus on the celebration.
I am sooo thankful that we don't have this dilemma in Canada! Thanksgiving is in October, spread apart from Halloween, and far from Christmas, so each holiday gets undivided attention. I LOVE Christmas so I'm putting up my tree this weekend believe it or not :) I don't mind being called crazy, I LOVE it. If all the decor takes so much effort I want to sit and enjoy it as long as I can :) And yes, NY is magical ... it was my first time being there at Christmas last year and I nearly died it was all so wonderful, can't wait to come back!
ReplyDeleteNancy xo
I like seeing those beautiful snowflakes because they represent the coming winter season and there is no representation of the forced need to consume. I detest the push to buy, buy, buy. We have so much in this country, yet we are presured to believe we need more.
ReplyDeleteChristmas is a religious holiday but it has morphed into a commercial frenzy, so the early decorating troubles me. I was brought up Christian and I am uncomfortable with how early the retailers push the holiday on the public, I can only imagine how uncomfortable it MIGHT be for others of a different religious persuation.
The problem is that advertisers are trying to seduce us into spending more and consuming more in order to experience the "ideal" holiday. Christmas shouldn't be about jabbing people in the ribs to get our hands on the "it" toy at some out-of-control black Friday sale. It shouldn't be about out-doing our neighbors in the decoration of our homes. The real joy of the season is spending time with loved ones. Don't get me wrong-- I love putting thought and effort into finding gifts my nephews will love. I love trimming the tree with my family. I love baking delicious goodies and eating yummy foods that are more elaborate than the usual daily chow. I'm all for indulging a bit during the holiday season. But I don't like that we, as a culture, have allowed corporations to ratchet up our expectations to unattainable levels so that falling short of the idealized images we see in commercials leaves us with a sense of failure and disappointment. And, oh yeah, Halloween and Thanksgiving are pretty great, too. I'd rather observe those holidays and really enjoy them, rather than give them short shrift because something supposedly bigger and better is up ahead.
ReplyDeleteI LOVE Christmas! I always make myself wait until the day after Thanksgiving to decorate (a tradition from when I was a kid), but some years it's SO HARD to wait! I've been pretty much counting down the days. But then, I've never really cared much for Thanksgiving. Bring on the glittery lights and evergreens!
ReplyDeleteI love everything about Christmas, but I happen to like everything about Thanksgiving too. With the rush to get people shopping, it seems like we only have one holiday instead of two.
ReplyDeleteI agree! Christmas is my favorite time of year. I start my Christmas shopping on December 26th and spend the whole year searching for the perfect gift for all my favorite people. My Christmas tree went up as soon as I shut my porch light off for the late night Trick or Treaters. Summer is hot and depressing and I couldn't get away from it soon enough. Here's to a season full of egg nog, candy canes, snowmen, and Christmas music on Pandora.
ReplyDelete