Christmas in October??

This fall I wanted to get the most out of Nicholas' Halloween costume (handmade by my mom), so I made plans to attend multiple parties and trick-or-treating events.  We had a great time and I loved how everyone ooohed and aaahed over the unique costume. I was shocked when we walked into the mall though and saw the gigantic red ribbons and balls hung from the ceiling on Halloween.  I balked at what big business Christmas had become and was disappointed that Halloween was being overshadowed.

Then I forgot about the whole thing until a few weeks later.  Right between Halloween and Thanksgiving, we made an emergency stop at the mall because Nicholas swore his shoes hurt his toes.  In hindsight,  I think he may have just had a sore toe and worked the system because despite the half-size difference, the new shoes look exactly the same size.  The salesman at Clark's was happy to indulge Nicholas' claims and now he can say he has shoes like Owen.  Anyways, as I trudged through the ridiculously crowded parking lot with stroller and toddler in hand (an adventure I try to avoid), I saw those humongous decorations again and automatically groaned. I'm not sure whether it was the impending madness of the holiday season or a protest about the commercialized nature.  As we got closer, Nicholas noticed the decorations, too.     He pointed and said, "Mommy. Christmas."   He had a huge smile on his face as he admired the glowing lights.  Two things crossed my mind...

1) How did he already know so much about Christmas? A question to be explored later...
2) Maybe I was just being a Grinch.  It's okay to embrace the holidays early.

"Ta dah! I decorated the tree all by myself."

Once inside, we looked down on Santa in his (strange spaceship) village in awe.  I accepted the decorations and started looking forward to the season...the next day I even bought Nicholas his very own 3-foot tree.  Why not spread some holiday cheer in his bedroom, I thought.  It took me 3 weeks to get things organized enough to get it out of the box and we still need to get the actual decorations out of the attic, but it's a start.

So what if the decorations go up in October?  It's up to each of us to keep thinking about the true spirit of the season and pass that to our children along with the magic.