35 Days!

'Tis the season! It's that time of year again... my personal favorite, Christmas! Not because of the gifts or the snow (brrr...), but because of the smell of cooking in the house, all the sweets, the decorations, time off school/work and most of all everyone seems to be cheery! Not only is Christmas something to look forward to, but New Year's comes right after. It is a time of year with lots of celebrations.

This past week I have seen so many decorations come up already. My neighbors have their house and yard all ready and glowing, stores on Crowchild are starting to light up, even at the airport they have a huge Christmas tree set up already. I love how getting ready for Christmas starts weeks ahead; it increases the anticipation that much more.

When is too early to set up for Christmas, though? On the radio this year I kept hearing statements where people were asking the city to wait until after Remembrance Day to put up any sort of decorations, as a form of respect for the veterans and soldiers. I have never heard this any previous year, or maybe I just didn't notice, but I would have to completely agree. To show the veterans and soldiers that we are thinking about them and entirely respect what they have done or what they are doing, I think holding off for one more day is appropriate. However, is mid November still too early?

My mom refuses to set up any decorations of any sort until at least December 1 and she sets aside a full day to do it. Christmas being my family's favorite holiday, my mom goes all out on decorations. She will put tinsel on the hand rails, lights in the kitchen, little trinkets all over the house and she even hangs some mistletoe right under the entrance to the kitchen. I absolutely love it! However, I think the thing that tops it off the most... is my 17 year old sister, 24 year old sister and myself all still get chocolate calendars. The funny part is my younger sister and I could care less about them, but it's my 24 year old sister who HAS to have one. It does, however, spark the Christmas spirit December 1st, so what the heck?

Despite my love for Christmas, I hate Christmas shopping. Don't get me wrong, I don't have an issue buying people gifts or spending money on them, it's figuring out what to get everyone that's the issue! You have to allocate how much money to can to spend on all the gifts and then how much to spend on everyone and the hardest part (for me anyways) figuring out what to get. My family recently came up with a new thing, which makes it a lot easier and cheaper for us. Seeing as how I have a big family (3 sisters, a brother in law, grandparents, my parents) and I have a boyfriend with siblings and parents as well, it gets expensive and tricky on what to get everyone. For the past few years my family decided to create a budget that we can spend on everyone, then each person has to create a list of a few things they would like for that budget, then we put the lists in a hat and each person picks one person they have to buy for (and a list of things they would want) and voila, my family is done! After that all I have left is my boyfriend and his family.

What are you family traditions for Christmas? Have you started Christmas shopping? When does your family set up decorations?