It’s been four days since Halloween, but the spooky holiday could have been over weeks ago.
In the most fantastic example of not living in the present, each year it seems like the rush to Christmas starts earlier and earlier.
I’m certainly not the first person to notice this perplexing phenomenon.
But this is the first year that I’ve sort of fallen into the trap.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Halloween, but I put so much into it this year -- researching and compiling lists of pumpkin patches and haunted houses since late September, going to those pumpkin patches and haunted houses, decorating the house, blogging about scary movies, etc.
I really felt I could move forward after the highlight of my Halloween season: going to the Atlanta Zombie Apocalypse, which I wrote about last week.
Plus, I’ve already started Christmas shopping and planning for holiday stories.
On Tuesday I stopped lighting the jack-o’-lanterns and was just about ready to pack up the fall decorations.
The extremely low flow of trick-or-treaters the night before may have played a part in the underwhelming conclusion of what I consider my favorite holiday season.
But before I could ask my husband to fetch the Christmas loot from the attic, I had to figuratively slap myself across the face.
First of all, I don’t think he would have indulged my early inclination to deck the halls. Secondly, why not just enjoy the current time of year?
We’re just settling in to a nice fall weather pattern and Thanksgiving is but a few weeks away -- that’s plenty of time to enjoy what remains of the pumpkin-scented candles and orange and yellow leaf wreaths before busting out the peppermint hand soap and pine garland.
The last few months of the year always seem to breeze by a bit faster anyway because there is so much going on -- in addition to all the holidays and football and hunting seasons, my family happens to celebrate the majority of its birthdays in the fourth quarter.
Add to that the wedding anniversary, which my husband and I will celebrate for the first time in just over a week.
The calendar is definitely bottom-heavy.
There is something innately comforting about the Christmas season -- it somehow instills a wonderful feeling that is only magnified by the fact that it comes around but once a year.
More than wanting to relish each day as it comes, I want Christmas to retain that sense of comfort and joy.
So while sleigh bells start dominating store displays, I’ll still be lingering in piles of leaves.
Come December, I’ll be ready to transition into Christmas-mode -- and I’m fairly certain the egg nog and mistletoe will be waiting for me.
