What signifies the holidays for you?
The holiday season marks the start of many traditions, old and new. Your holiday could start right on Dec. 25, when Christmas arrives, or Dec 19th, the first day of Hanukkah.
These dates signify the days of celebration, but what exactly makes these days special?
Decoration
Putting up the Christmas tree is always debatable. Does it go up the day Thanksgiving is over or once the leaves start to fall? Does the tree go up at all? For some, this is a signature way to make your home feel like the holidays have arrived. This is the best time to get the family together and decorate with new ornaments or passed down ornaments.
Holiday Movies
As far as holiday movies go, the holidays may even start as early as October. Tim Burton classic “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” always gives that lingering feeling that Chiristmas is right around the corner. Is it a Halloween movie or a Christmas movie? It can be both
We cannot talk about Christmas movies without bringing up the classic “Home Alone.” Once you watch the whole series while decorating your home, it feels like the holidays. A childhood classic that can bring anyone into the holidays is “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” with the film beginning on Thanksgiving, to the pieces that slowly bring Christmas into play. Once Schroeder’s piano keys start to play, it is hard to miss the holiday season.
Retail
All of the holiday shopping for your loved ones this time of year is definitely a wake up call to the bank account that it is the holidays! Black Friday sales start online as far back as a week before the actual day. Those deals are followed by Cyber Monday price slashes. A massive amount of underwhelming sales from retailers always kicks off the holidays for those who work retail or love to shop. From the decorated displays, to the deals, and the holiday themed or scented items, there is no escape knowing it’s the holidays when entering storefronts.
Cooking
The best part of going home isn’t just seeing all of the decorations, but smelling a home cooked meal. For the holidays, there are so many classic meals that you can smell as soon as you enter the door. My family has always made lumpia for Christmas, and my favorite memory of every Christmas is sitting with my mother and wrapping every piece by hand. That is how I know it is Christmas. Another popular Christmas meal is homemade tamales. These are also time consuming to make, but the end result is always delicious and worth it.
Every home for the holiday celebrates in their own traditional way, to quote Brenda Lee in “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree”, “In the new old-fashioned way.”