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Alright, so where does everybody stand on the debate about when the holiday season starts? Are you a November 1 truther like Mariah Carey? Or are you more like I am, where the decorations go up and the holiday music begins on the weekend after American Thanksgiving? Or, are you a fan of the third option, which is to just keep ‘em up all year round?
Kelly Clarkson is a fan of Option #3. Last week, she had Robin Wright as a guest on The Kelly Clarkson Show. During their discussion, they started talking about the appropriate time to start celebrating the Christmas season. While Kelly and Robin are both members of #TeamMariah, Kelly shared that she actually has a “Christmas room” in her house. One year, she and her kids, River Rose, 10, and Remington Alexander, eight, decorated their large bonus room. Decorating the room was such a production that she decided, “Hey, why not just keep ‘em up all year long?!”
“I decorated it the first year for Christmas, and then I was like, ‘That was a lot of work. We’ll shut the doors until [next] Christmas,” the ‘Stronger’ singer said with a laugh. “So we have a whole room, but we literally will go in there and dance throughout the day and just put Christmas songs on.”
Clarkson is a huge lover of the holiday season and has released two Christmas albums — 2021’s When Christmas Comes Around and 2013’s Wrapped in Red. Back in September, the star released a new holiday-themed tune, “You For Christmas,” which she worked on with Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt.
In a Sept. 23 Instagram post, Clarkson celebrated the song, writing, “Christmas in September? 👀 …..okay🎅🏼 My new holiday single “You For Christmas” is out this Friday, September 27! Thank you @IamMarkRonson and @wyattish for such an incredible collab! I can’t wait for y’all to hear it. Pre-save link in bio #YouForChristmas.”
Next month, on Wednesday, Dec. 4, Clarkson will return to host NBC’s Christmas in Rockefeller Center holiday special for the second year in a row. The program will feature the annual tree-lighting ceremony and various musical performances.
This story reminds me of Kumail Nanjiani’s character Rudy on Season 4 of Only Murders in the Building, lol. But hey, good for Kelly. She is fortunate enough to have the space, and she and her kids clearly love having the room up all year. Dance away, fam! Make those memories! My sister-in-law already has her Christmas tree up, and my other sister-in-law took her kids to see Santa at the local Bass Pro Shop this past weekend. She says wanted to get pictures for their holiday cards, but they’re both November 1 people, lol. I actually know someone who keeps a smaller Christmas tree and a Santa figurine up all year long. They say it makes them happy. Is that my jam? No, but it’s not hurting anyone, so who am I to judge? I am always going to be on the side of “Do what makes you happy as long as it isn’t hurting someone else.”
photos credit Getty and via Instagram
I love Christmas and live with a nice man I adore- who really hates it.
So i generally keep my decorations (some of which go back to my 1970s childhood) to just one room.
But since I wanted to just die after the election, I bought a 4ft fake Christmas tree, put it up with ornaments from my idyllic childhood (except the glass ones- we have cats) and have deemed it Christmas season in my house.
And it has helped.
The tree is up on a table in the front window of my house- so I can see the lights when I take the dog out.
I used to be a post us thanksgiving person – but now I’m fully on board with first week in November.
My mom stopped doing christmas once I had my own place and gave me all the stuff, and I love my childhood ornaments too!!! I also have a bunch of photos with santa from both mine and my husband’s childhoods, and I love those. I totally put up the decorations in the spot where I can see them and enjoy them, so I am right there with you. My husband won’t budge on having a live tree though, so it’s still a tad too early for us. I can’t wait though!!
I’m with you there. I put up decorations early to try for some cheer.
If I decorate, I usually do it Thanksgiving weekend. I rarely do holiday events at my house so sometimes I don’t bother. Last year I had a get together, so I went all out and it was exhausting.
I barely decorate for any holiday for lazy, boring reasons such as I don’t want to buy decorations, I don’t want to put up decorations, and I don’t want to put away decorations, but I think if you’re the opposite of all those things and it brings you joy then go for it! If I had the extra space and funds maybe I would have a year-round Halloween room myself…
Same. It is creating waste, and also, i am not religious. So, if i were to decorate, i would have to include all religious holidays.. it is complicated.
I do like fairy lights and different types of string lights as decoration/cheer, but detest the commercialization of Christmas more and more every year. We haven’t had a Christmas tree in years (no little kids in my family). Cancel Amazon and avoid Wal-Mart and other companies that support the mango movement. Christmas should mean time with your family and not a bunch of dusty hoarded crap.
The last Sunday before the start of Advent is the Lutheran Church’s commemoration of the dead. We start Christmas deco the day after, although we’re not religious.
The shops over here used to start pushing out Christmas cookies, chocolate and other sweets ~ mid-September.
After the roll-out of the Covid vaccine, the antivaxxers somehow came up with the idea that the vaxed people would all be dead by September. So our Aldi started putting out the Christmas stuff the last week in August 2021, publicly stating they wanted to provide some cheer to those about to depart. And people did them a favor and shopped like crazy!
Aldi and others have been doing the earlier, end of August, roll-out every year since then, as the antivaxxers didn’t say September of which year.
Win-win.
I’ve always been a post-Thanksgiving decorator, but Thanksgiving is late this year. And the election was a gut punch. So I’m going to decorate next week to see if it helps at all.
Growing up, we starting decorating the weekend of Thanksgiving in drips and drabs for a week or two. Raised Catholic, so the decorations came down January 7.
In the Netherlands, I compromised with my husband’s tradition of Sinterklaas for a few years when we had kids. Then I realized, part of the whole Christmas thing is the build-up with decorations, crafts, baking, etc, and since I dropped Thanksgiving over here, we reached a different consensus on celabrating. We start December 1, with Advent calendars counting down until the day before Christmas.
I don’t do anything until it’s December and then it all depends on my schedule and energy. One year we got our tree on December 23rd. The year we got our house and had no furniture in the front room we bought the biggest fattest tree we could find and filled that space
I have a little table-top fake tree that’s decorated with lights and mini Star Trek ornaments. During the year, it sits on my window sill. After Thanksgiving, I plug in the lights and Voilia! it’s Christmas!
There are a few houses I’ve noticed that are already full blown outside Christmas decorations with mechanical deer and the works.
I was usually an after Thanksgiving decorator but an elderly neighbor mentioned that she loved sitting at her front window and looking at the decorations and watching the neighborhood kids marvel at it. We went all out. So we started putting them up before Thanksgiving so she could enjoy them on her birthday. And once she died it sort of took the fun out of it and it got to be too much. Everyone loved the decorations but no one wanted to help put them up. I don’t have time anymore.
I do keep a string of lights on all year around the front of my house. I say it’s for security but really I just like them. lol
Can’t help but think it’s giving Spelling mansion gift wrapping room. Which is to say, this is how to know your house is too big. But sure, as long as it makes them happy.. good for them