I have a confession to make. I’ve already put up my Christmas tree.

Here’s my reasoning behind it:

According to tradition, the holiday season starts on Thanksgiving (or after Santa makes his appearance at the end of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade). Once I return from Thanksgiving break I will only have three weeks left in my apartment before I have to pack up and go home for Christmas. These three weeks will be riddled with tests and last minute assignments, and will therefore leave me with little time to enjoy my decor.

So my roommate and I went ahead and put out tree up now. All the more time to enjoy the ambiance.

The weeks following Halloween but preceding Thanksgiving are always an awkward time. It’s like the “lame-duck” period of the holidays or, as I prefer to call it, “pre-Christmas”.

During pre-Christmas there are a lot of mixed feelings about the season. Wal-Mart has already had their Christmas decorations on the shelves for weeks and Starbucks is now selling those amazing peppermint mocha lattes. But what happened to Thanksgiving? You’d think for a country that loves any excuse to eat food and throw parties would make a bigger deal about Thanksgiving.

Here are the pros and cons of pre-Christmas.

Pro: The Christmas spirit is creeping into the air. Christmas is the most magical time of the year. Why wouldn’t we want that spirit to linger for as long as possible?

Con: Thanksgiving is for being thankful while Christmas is about giving and receiving. We often forget that we must first be  thankful before we receive our wonderful presents. I think that’s why God planned to have Thanksgiving prior to Christmas.

Pro: The longer we think about Christmas, the more time we have to get a jump start on our Christmas shopping. And there are some great deals this time of the year.

Con: Black Friday is getting out of hand. The store hours are ridiculous, but the craziest part is the people who actually wait in line at something o’clock in the morning for hours on end to get that perfect item. Don’t get me wrong, shopping is tons of fun. But the obsession with stuff kind of defeats the purpose of Thanksgiving.

Bottom line, there’s nothing wrong with getting in the Christmas mood a little early, but Thanksgiving is too important to be simply over-looked.

So on Thursday, spend time with people you love, eat some delicious food, watch the Macy’s Parade or some football and, most importantly, take some time to be grateful.