Christmas is quickly arriving, but for many it began halfway through October. It seems like every year stores start bringing out Christmas merchandise earlier than the year before. It irritates me a little bit, because as much as I like Christmas time, let’s not ruin it by kicking Halloween and Thanksgiving out of the way. It is making Christmas become more of a marketing holiday than one about enjoying the season, spending time with family and holding on to memories that make the season worth celebrating. While Thanksgiving is supposed to be a holiday for giving thanks for everything we have, it takes a back seat to Black Friday, which is becoming more of a holiday than Thanksgiving. To me once Thanksgiving is over with, then the Christmas season can began with the putting up of decorations, stores can put out all of their Christmas stuff and the snow can fall.

Once Thanksgiving is over, that still leaves Black Friday as the start to the Christmas season. And although people tend to take it a little too far, it can actually be a good start to creating the first memory to the season. I have only participated in Black Friday once and it will probably going to be the only time. At 6 a.m., still half asleep, I went to the mall, which looked like it was going out of business, with the intent of just buying a necklace and had the perfect amount for it with me. So once I went to buy it, the cashier asked if I wanted the insurance and I politely declined. But for some reason she didn’t feel that was the correct answer and proceeded to argue with me that I must get the insurance. After a couple minutes of this I was about to just walk away, but she finally gave in with the comment of, “Well when a diamond falls out, don’t come crying to me,” and I assured her that I would not. And due to a fortunate event, I have the necklace back in my possession with every diamond still in it after three years.

Then once the Black Friday chaos is over, all the really important memories begin. The house decorations go up and Christmas cookies are made. Christmas tree shopping begins, followed by decorating the tree, which is always an adventure beginning with getting the tree into the house and trying to keep the dogs away from it. But decorating the tree is always fun with Christmas music playing, cookies made for the breaks in between hanging up decorations and me putting my favorite ornaments (a Jeff Gordon car, Camaro and Corvette) up first. The presents are bought, sometimes last minute, wrapping begins and before you know it Christmas Eve is here.

For me that means gathering with the family at my aunts for dinner and where some of the best memories come from, because most of the time, in a positive way, once the whole family gets together it is almost like living in a sitcom. Many funny stories are told and events that create the future funny stories are created, like when my aunt unintentionally baked a whole boiled egg in the center of a cake once.

Christmas Day then finally arrives and the real fun begins. Everyone opens their presents, and I have luckily never gotten coal. I’m also hoping this year Santa brings the new ZL1 Camaro I asked for. But then there is the Christmas morning breakfast. Everyone spends the rest of the day trying out whatever they got and it ends with dinner at my grandparents’. Although once it ends, it seems to come to a sudden halt. The new gifts already seem old, the cookies become stale, the tree goes away and everything else Christmas related around the house is put away, bringing everything back to its usual boring look. Which is why instead of seeing Christmas as just a time for presents or only a religious holiday, it should be seen as a time span starting after Thanksgiving, where you take in everything you enjoy around you to keep it as a great Christmas memory to have for years to come.