Let the Christmassing Begin (Early!)

Okay, it’s October. We’re not even through Halloween yet, and there are already Christmas displays going up in stores! And with them comes the outcry: But it’s too early! We can’t start Christmassing yet!

To which I am inclined to say, “Let people enjoy things!” As a fan of Star Trek, and the 2016 Ghostbusters reboot, and a great many things that are routinely and nastily stalked by trolls, I now have a real hair trigger when it comes to people who get their jollies bursting other people’s balloons just for spite. But starting Christmas in October isn’t just something some people like, nor is it just a case of premature enthusiasm or a pathological fondness for Christmas music. Christmas in October is a matter of sanity and survival for the people from whom it demands the most.

And those people are typically moms.

Why do moms start Christmassing in October these days? Well, for moms, Christmas starts early because Christmas has gotten so demanding. You can’t leave putting up the tree until December 20^th anymore—not if you want to enjoy the season, anyway. The entire month of December is going to be taken up with office holiday parties, children’s Christmas concerts, drive-through light displays, Santa pictures, parades, Kristkindlemarkt, obligatory TV and movies, endless cooking, important sports events, and family get togethers. Want to do an advent calendar? It has to be ready to go on December 1. Flying somewhere? Buy your tickets early. Booking a special Christmas event, like, oh, a ride on the Polar Express? Listen, those tickets go on sale in July and by November, the choice dates and times are already booked. Giving gifts on Christmas morning? By the time you hit December 15, you have to have already ordered them. Giving gifts before Christmas? Well, they have to be ordered even earlier. Participating in a charitable toy drive? Deadlines for donations to many Christmas charities, including angel trees, Toys for Tots, and shoeboxes, are due some time between the 10^th and 15^th of December.

Again: if you wait until Black Friday to start, you’re already wayyyyyy behind. By the time ordinary people—the ones not responsible for the Christmas planning—are “in the spirit,” a big chunk of the work has to have already been done.

Moms know this, even if naysayers do not.

We spend a lot of text on the gloriousness of the last-minute Christmas shoppers, but when my kids were small, I had most of the shopping for them done by mid-November. By the time we went to see Santa Claus, I already knew what they were getting. I spent years subtly guiding my children to ask Santa for whatever big item was already safely stashed in my Christmas Gift Hidey Hole. And that was before Pinterest!

So, let’s stop criticizing people, especially moms, who are getting a jump on the season. Moms are the managers of the family calendar, and we know how impossible December is going to be. If we have done half of the things in November, or even October, it helps to keep us from losing our minds in the month of December, trying to get it all done. Give Moms a Break. We have enough to do without people who aren’t responsible for managing this massive annual production, and making sure it comes off without a hitch, insisting that it all has to be crammed into 24 days of a single month.

So make some hot chocolate (put Halloween marshmallows in it if you must, I suppose), and start assembling those Christmas crafts! That “perfect Christmas morning” isn’t going to plan itself! And we the Moms want to be able to enjoy it, too.

What’s that you say? I can’t hear you! I’ve got “Jingle Bells” cranked up to 11! Merry Christmas, everybody!