If you’re a Christian (and even sometimes if you’re not), then you celebrate Christmas. We’ve come to associate Christmas with many things: Shopping, Family and Friends, gift giving and receiving, good food, and decorations. It seems each year we get into the “Christmas Spirit” a little bit earlier than we did the year before. I think it’s the pressure the retail industry puts on us to get out there and shop. That’s not really the topic of this argument, but I’ll say: “It doesn’t make any sense to me why they pressure us to buy earlier and earlier, since we’re essentially buying the same amount of things, no matter when we buy them”.

I love Christmas. I love decorating the house for Christmas, and I have a collection of lights to rival Clark W. Griswold. I anticipate decoration day, and last year, I even used Adobe Photoshop and pictures I took of my house at night to mock up my designs. I’m already in the planning phases for this year, even though Thanksgiving is still two days away. This weekend I’m going to sit down with my gear, and gameplan. I’ll check my strands of bulbs, wreaths, and lighted figurines to make sure decorating day goes down smoothly.

With all this said, I gotta say: If you have your house decorated already, shame on you. It’s WAY to early. My rule of thumb is not to go before December 10th. If you hang them too early, they lose their charm. They become normal, and you won’t enjoy them as much. I also take them down around January 10th. I figure I got a good month out of them, and I’ll be ready for next Christmas. If you leave them up too long (especially when you’re not lighting them anymore), people start giving you the “Trailer Trash” monicker, and nobody wants that (unless you really are trailer trash).

If you follow my advice here, you’ll find your Christmas display will be a pleasure for both you and your neighbors.

Oh…one last thing: I’m going to propose a decoration contest to the guys in my neighborhood. One winner, and the winning prize is that all the losers have to take his lights down for him in January. I think it’s a smashing idea!