Days until Christmas: 61.
The date was Oct. 25, and I began decorating my house for the winter holidays. To the people around me, this was absurd. There were two more major holidays in between the day I decorated and Christmas; I couldn’t care less. As a family, we don’t participate in the fall holidays. Halloween is an excuse to buy chocolate, and Thanksgiving means a good meal with family at someone else’s house.
But Christmas has always been so much more than the gifts under the tree.
Christmas allows me to bring back my inner child while I put up the tree. It isn’t just hanging ornaments on a tree; it’s the same 10-year-old boy decorating his first tree with his family but now instead I anticipate for them to come home and tell me all about how much they love my decorations. While decorating the house has gone from a full family activity to just me, the memories attached to each ornament I hang, each garland and wreath I put up and each string of lights that brighten my house are a reminder of the little things that protected my innocence and ignited my love for the holidays. .
Over the course of the year, my family friend group takes turns hosting get-togethers. Every family switches around their preferred date for that year, but it’s common knowledge that everyone will gather at my house on the 25th. What was once a competitive game of white elephant became doing “Just Dance” and blind karaoke into the late hours of the night
Throughout the first 11 months of the year, stressors build up over time. Decorating can be a great stress release, as it allows you to isolate your brain and let the warm, incandescent lights be your primary focus. The warmth of the lights are proven to increase dopamine production, giving the psyche a temporary mental release.
Walking through Target, looking at all of their red and green knick-knacks makes me feel right at home. Scrolling on TikTok seeing how many Fridays are left until Dec. 25 keeps me pushing through the semester. These signs remind me that if people didn’t care about decorating this far in advance, then we wouldn’t hear about the holiday this early.
