Stop holiday hopping

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By Riley Cable

Illustration by Ainsley Davis

Imagine the perfect fall day: the weather is the ideal temperature (70 degrees), and you can finally pull out your favorite flannel. It’s November, and you jump in your car headed toward Target ready to pick the coziest decorations for Thanksgiving. As soon as you get there, you not only still see Thanksgiving decorations, but Christmas decorations as well.

Every year, stores put holiday decor out earlier than the year before, and it leaves people questioning which holiday to decorate for. People begin to contemplate this “big” decision as soon as the temperature drops the slightest bit. Holidays were put in order for a reason: to celebrate the time when the original event takes place. Halloween is in October, Thanksgiving is in November, but people will decorate for Christmas at the beginning of October. They are different holidays, and people should celebrate them when their time comes and not before and not after. Grabbing your newest decorations for the season shouldn’t be a problem, but instead it leaves people standing in the middle of the aisle not sure what to buy.

Consumers can’t get all the blame for decorating way too early. People should point their fingers at stores like Walmart, Target and Home Depot. Buyers wouldn’t consider decorating months in advance if there wasn’t the newest inflatable Santa staring them in the eyes every time they went shopping. By putting out Christmas decorations and playing holiday tunes in September, stores are taunting the weak who just can’t help themselves and want to buy anything put in front of them.  

If stores were to wait just a little bit longer, the holiday season would be more jolly and stress-free. Instead, there exists the constant feeling of being behind. Some people carry the extra-competitive genes and have a strong desire to always be the best and the first, so as soon as there are Christmas decorations in a store, it becomes the next “Amazing Race” to deck the halls of your house and win the unspoken decorating contest of your neighborhood. Calm down, Brenda; this isn’t the bake sale.

When you walk into someone’s house on October 1, you expect to see ghosts, goblins, and skeletons, and you do. However, if there is a snowman next to pumpkins before November in your house, you need to seek help. The first step is to admit that you have a problem. Wait until after Thanksgiving to start decorating for Christmas. Even though many relate to your love of Christmas, it is not the only holiday, and it shouldn’t be getting as much attention as the youngest sibling. Your love needs to be spread amongst all the holidays because they have feelings, too.

Thanksgiving, the holiday all about giving thanks, gets nothing in return. It is the abandoned holiday when it comes to decorating. There isn’t any decor to spice up your house other than the bland casserole Aunt Vicky brings every year when no one asked her to. The pumpkins and leaves in store aisles are forgotten as people shove red and green into their carts. Guests sit down at Thanksgiving next to elves and reindeer instead of paper maché turkeys.

At this rate, knowing the exact season will soon be impossible to figure out because Christmas decorations will be set up in July. It may be summer, but a 50-foot snowman will stare you in the face as you enter your cul-de-sac. Fall will soon be a thing of the past because it will be neglected beyond belief. Shelf displays will jump straight from Fourth of July to Christmas as reindeers will replace jack-o-lanterns.

Regardless of your love for Christmas, remember there are other holidays before then. Make it your best effort to ignore the abundance of colorful ornaments and check out the cornucopias. Decorate for the appropriate season because it only comes once a year. Please.

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Riley Cable is a senior, and this is her third year on “The Roar” staff. This year she is taking on the role as Editor-in-chief. Riley loves to write features and sports, specifically soccer. In her free time, she loves to take workout classes, get coffee or just drive around blasting music. Riley loves being surrounded by good energies, and she loves to constantly be around people. Riley’s current plans after high school are to attend college and hopefully pursue a career in neuroscience or psychiatry, but she wants to keep writing on the side.