by Ashley
My Arizona “Christmas Cactus” that I had up last year by Thanksgiving.
My Mom and Stepdad are coming out this year to visit for Thanksgiving. This is only the second time ever (in the nearly 20 years of living out of state) that they have come to visit for the holiday! I am thrilled to be hosting and beyond thrilled to be able to celebrate the holiday with family!
That being said, the planner-inside started getting a little crazy with planning. Before I knew it, I had a mile-long menu of all the foods I wanted to make. Add to that the fact that Christmas keeps starting earlier and earlier. It feels like half our neighborhood already has lights and yard decor up and I was starting to stress myself out over the fact that we haven’t even started.
When I was complaining to my husband over the weekend about all my stresses over my “must do’s” he pointed out that a lot of my stress was self-imposed. Yes, we’ll be “hosting”…. but there are only 6 of us in total. I don’t need to make enough food to feed an army!
And there’s no need to decorate for Christmas this early. That might be a fun activity to start decorating together the Friday after Thanksgiving. I’ve lived away from home nearly my entire adult life, so it would be a special treat to do some of this together!
And overall, I was just getting ahead of myself. Yes, it feels like the weeks have been flying by – I can’t believe Thanksgiving is almost upon us! But there’s no need to rush the holiday. It’s perfectly fine if we don’t put up Christmas decor until November 28-29th (or – GASP! – wait until December 6-7).
I think sometimes social media creates this unnecessary pressure to do things earlier or to keep up with neighbor’s nearly perfect displays by doing more or bigger than previous years. But I don’t want to lose focus on what really matters most – the family time. I don’t want to spoil that by imposing all this pressure for things to be “perfect.” I’m just happy to be having the time together.
How are you spending Thanksgiving this year? What’s on your Thanksgiving menu?
Hi, I’m Ashley! Arizonan on paper, Texan at heart. Lover of running, blogging, and all things cheeeeese. Early 40s, married mother of two, working in academia. Trying to finally (finally!) pay off that ridiculous 6-digit student loan debt!
We always put Christmas decorations up the Friday after Thanksgiving. Usually after a breakfast of leftover pumpkin pie.
As long as your visitors are willing, I think it’s a great idea to wait and make it a fun activity to do together! Maybe you could even get some supplies to make ornaments together and create some new special memories.
We don’t decorate our tree until Christmas Eve. When I was a kid, “Santa” decorated the tree during the night when he left the presents, so as kids the whole beauty of the decorated tree on Christmas morning was magical and special. As we got older and no longer believed in Santa, we still decorated the tree as a family activity on Christmas Eve and I love this tradition! I think that waiting makes the tree and the holiday “special” and I don’t quite understand decorating so early because by Christmas Day the decorations are not special at all. I do put up mantel decoration and a few other things in and around the house about a week before Christmas, but again – I want the holiday to feel special. For me, having decorations up for a month to 6 weeks makes them loose their meaning.