Why I Don’t Put Up the Christmas Tree Before Thanksgiving

I know this may be an unpopular opinion, but when my family suggested we start putting up the Christmas decorations the day after Halloween this year, my immediate response was, not yet. No, I’m not a grinch, and before you grab your torches and pitchforks, please allow me to explain.

The holiday season is full of joy and family time, but it’s also the busiest shopping period of the year. Even before kids arrive for Halloween candy, stores are already nudging us to start buying Christmas gifts. Around this time, many people spend generously, often turning to credit cards. While the crowds may not be as frantic as they once were in shopping malls, the shopping buzz is still alive. My kids have lengthy Christmas wish lists—but what about that holiday tucked between Halloween and Christmas?

Thanksgiving has been overlooked for decades now. I remember as a kid, ads were filled with messages of gratitude, and schools emphasized it too. These days, it feels like Thanksgiving has become an invisible holiday. I can’t help but wonder if it’s because it’s easier to focus on getting more things than appreciating what we already have. Thanksgiving forces us to pause and reflect, which can feel more uncomfortable than keeping busy with tasks and distractions. In my humble opinion, it’s the most important holiday of all—not because of the myth about pilgrims and Indigenous people, which was debunked long ago, but because it’s a chance to set aside time for gratitude. How many holidays are devoted to that? Yet we often skip right past it to focus on buying and spending until we’re stretched too thin.

I’m not trying to insinuate that the Christmas season has no value. Rather, I believe there’s a season and time for everything. To me, this is the season of thankfulness. Carrying on the tradition of my parents, we don’t put up any Christmas decorations until the day after Thanksgiving (sometimes Thanksgiving night). I started a tradition with my kids of creating a gratitude tree in the days leading up to Thanksgiving. We discuss everything God has provided for us, and I try to emphasize making a Christmas list with that in mind. I want my children to be grateful for what they do have before they ruminate on what they don’t.

But this isn’t just for my kids—it’s for me too. If I turned my focus to Christmas right now, it would be all about me: my beautiful decorations, my plan to make wonderful memories, my Christmas shopping list, and so on. These things are not inherently bad, but when I enter the season in which we remember the origin of salvation, I want to come into that space with a humble heart full of gratitude. I feel that not skipping over Thanksgiving helps me enter this mindset.

I want to end by clearly stating that this is what my family does, and I don’t judge anyone for getting an early start to the holiday season. I simply want to share my reflections and explain why I believe embracing the season of thanks is so important. This month, I’ll be posting about our journey to thankfulness and how I’m trying to teach our children gratitude—if you’d like some ideas. Thanks for allowing me to share my heart and for joining us on this road of life!