History of Christmas

Here we are with the trees finally done. Phew!! So thus far in the poll it looks like an overwhelming majority of you think that Christmas decorations should not be put up until the day after Thanksgiving. (More so than you think. Two of the votes for before Thanksgiving are Samuel and I. :) I guess that seems to be a tradition in the United States. And about a week ago I agreed with you. Because honestly, I put up (okay, okay, Samuel really did most of the work) the outside lights thinking that we wouldn't light them until after Thanksgiving. But then it took so much time and energy, that it was disappointing to just let them sit there unlit!

So then I did the post and poll, and then I decided to do a little research. So up until the early 1900's it was the long-standing tradition to put up the Christmas tree and decorations on Christmas Eve. In fact, it was considered bad luck to put them up before then. In the early to mid 1900's people began evolving their views and it became tradition to put the tree and decorations up two weeks before Christmas (and it was still considered bad to put them up before). By the mid to late 1900 Christmas started coming up the day after Thanksgiving (which initially was seen as a big affront on Thanksgiving - you know, like having a party the day after a funeral.) But soon enough it became tradition. Well, I figure this is looking like a real pattern, and rather than fighting change I'm embracing it. I'm going to be a trend setter. The beginning of the bell curve. The new and chic. And I'm going to start Christmas after Halloween. You can take me off your "friends" list now. But all the same, MERRY CHRISTMAS!!



When can outside Christmas lights be turned on?
before Halloween -- 0,0%
after Halloween, but before Thanksgiving -- 6,13%
after Thanksgiving -- 38,86%