Kick Off The 2024 Holiday Season!
When is the right time to start celebrating Christmas? When is it socially appropriate to begin celebrating the holidays? How early is TOO early to start celebrating Christmas? A contraversial question phrased so many ways.
Whether you’re one to kick off the holidays the moment the clock strikes 00:00 on November 1, or prefer to wait long after Thanksgiving, everyone seems to have a very strong opinion on WHEN the world can and should kick off the holiday season.
At my house, the holidays aren’t individual events on the calendar - they are a true season with activities and events spanning the entirety of it.
My Big Secret
That’s because Christmas isn’t actually my favorite holiday. Don’t get me wrong, I love everything about the Christmas season - the lights, the singing, the decorating, the community events, the FOOD. But my favorite thing about this time of year is the effort people make to spend quality time together; and that ends on Dec. 31. Christmas Day is the end of my fun. It’s in the weeks leading up to Christmas that we find the world savoring the quiet moments.
And that perspective knocks down a lot of walls between you and holiday celebration activities - if you want it to. So if you’re looking for a way to ease into the season earlier than Dec. 1 - you’re in the right place. Because at my house, the holidays begin on October 31.
The Holidays Begin Oct. 31
I can practically hear you gasping in judgment. “Woah, woah, woah,” you say, “we’re just ignoring Halloween?” No. I love Halloween. Our Halloween decorations go up on Oct. 1 and stay up until Nov. 1. But who’s to say that there can’t be a continuity of events between the individual calendar dates that these holidays hold? Enter: The Nightmare Before Christmas.
What better way is there to enjoy the final moments of spooky season, while beckoning in the next, than with a candy-stuffed, family movie party? This classic is available on Disney Plus and Prime for streaming, and has a run-time of only 1h 15m, making it a super easy watch for the after trick-or-treating cool down. My family has done this every year and it is one of our favorite holiday kick off events.
