While driving home from an elementary school literacy event last night, I noticed that my local radio station had changed its format to “all Christmas music, all the time” until after the Christmas holiday.  Then, I passed a giant Santa peering over the back fence of a house near mine.  And when I pulled into my neighborhood, I saw that two of my neighbors had their Christmas lights up already.

I’m not sure when the holidays got all jumbled together into a mass of orange and black and brown and red and green, but I miss the days of celebrating one holiday at a time.  The pharmacy where I work part-time was decorated for Christmas before Halloween and I noticed that other local shops also had Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas items for sale starting in October.

When my children were small, they would get very excited about the different holidays during the year.  They would ask me which holiday came next and how our family would celebrate.  We would talk about the reasons for each holiday and plan how we would decorate our house and what fun traditions would be a part of our celebration.

Times do change but it used to be that each holiday had its own moment.  It seems like we as a society are so busy looking ahead to what comes next, that we are forgetting to stop and enjoy the present moments.  Shouldn’t every holiday be celebrated to the fullest?

For me, there will be no Christmas decorating until after Thanksgiving…all things in their own time.  Let’s give Thanksgiving its due and savor this holiday which celebrates family time and good food and football and thankfulness.

Once Thanksgiving is over, I will be happily decking the halls and trimming the tree to celebrate His birth.  But for now, I’m thinking about all the people and things for which I am thankful.