So this is Christmas...

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas
Ev'rywhere you go;
Take a look in the five-and-ten, glistening once again
With candy canes and silver lanes aglow.

We are officially into the Christmas season. I think the Christmas season officially begins after the official Thanksgiving Day nap. Which, by the way, is not tryptophan induced.

Some people, think that the Christmas season officially begins somewhere around 12:01AM on November 1st. This past Halloween, while I was on a church retreat, I had to make an emergency run to Walmart. I breezed through the doors very shortly after midnight and began my search for the right aisle. I was surprised to see Super-Center-Sized Christmas decorations out and waiting to be displayed despite the fact that many a drunk college girl was still celebrating in her sexy Little Bo Peep costume.

The wikipedia "Christmas and holiday season" page gives several dates for the Christmas season:

• According to Yanovski et al, in the United States the season "is generally considered to begin with Thanksgiving and end after New Year's Day".
• According to Axelrad, the season in the United States encompasses at least Christmas and New Year's Day, and also includes Saint Nicholas Day.
• The U.S. Fire Administration defines the winter holiday season as the period from December 1 to January 7.
• According to Chen et al., in China the Christmas/winter holiday season "is generally considered to begin with the winter solstice and end after the Lantern Festival".
• Some stores and shopping malls advertise their Christmas merchandise beginning after Halloween or even in late October, alongside Halloween items.
• In the UK Christmas food appears on supermarket shelves as early as September.

I like the U.S. Fire Administrations dates best. January 7th is the Ephiphany and, according to Catholic tradtion, is when the Magi found baby Jesus.

I usually institute some sort of personal ban on celebrating Christmas at least until Thanksgiving Day. This year, however, I got in the swing of things a little earlier than usual. The Sunday before Thanksgiving, Lauren-the-roommate and I went shopping in search of basic stuffs: toilet paper, rice cakes, a magazine basket. Sometime during our expedition, we decided that it was high time to decorate the house for Christmas--as much as poor college roomies can, that is.

I've been happily listening Christmas music and singing carols in my car since the radio stations turned it on November 1st. At home, I favor the Sufjan Christmas CD.

When do you start celebrating Christmas?

♥, TiffanyAnne