Let’s face it: nobody likes to see Christmas lights on around the time of Halloween. The same goes for drinking eggnog before December, and Christmas music on the first rainy day of OCTOBER.  It’s just wrong.  While the holiday season begins differently for every family, there are a few unspoken rules when it comes to tactful holiday timing.

Usually, the holiday season progresses in stages.  The appropriate time for Christmas music is usually different than the right time to put up the Christmas tree, etc.  However, if these fun holiday traditions are started too soon, say, in October or early November, the magic of the holiday season is spread too thin.

The holiday season is special, in the same way that a long-awaited trip to Disneyland is special. Part of the fun of the holidays is knowing how long you had to patiently wait for the excitement to arrive.

There is a reason for the seasons: each different time of the year is made special by the different traditions each individual season includes. If we mix them all up, for example with Christmas music playing in October, the month of December isn’t nearly as special.

By the time the real holiday season rolls around, everyone will be tired of hearing the familiar tunes like “Jingle Bells” and “Baby It’s Cold Outside” but if they had only waited a tad longer, their holiday music experience would be greatly enhanced.

A general rule of thumb for Christmas and winter preparation would be to wait until Thanksgiving break. That way, everyone had plenty of time to enjoy the fall (which was well appreciated, according to Instagram and Twitter) before moving on to the next phase of the year.

Every season is wonderful in it’s own way: the flowers and sunshine of Spring, the carefree beach-days of summer, Halloween and pumpkin patches in the fall, and the cold days and holiday festivities of winter.  By adhering to the different seasons, and not jumping the gun with those special holiday traditions, the magic of the holiday season will be preserved, truly making these few weeks “the most wonderful time of the year!”