It’s the morning of November 1st. My elderly neighbor across the street is taking the blow-up plastic zombie he had on his porch to his basement where he’ll stay for another eleven and a half months or so. The amount of candy in my trick-or-treat sack has decreased exponentially from the previous night. To make things even worse, it’s a school day. Everything is playing out perfectly for my annual post-Halloween depression, until I see my neighbor reappear from his basement with another plastic blow-up. “It can’t be,” I say to myself. But it is. The one and only, Santa Claus, on the day after Halloween.

There aren’t a whole lot of things that really bug me, but premature Christmas decorating sure is one of them. Don’t get me wrong, I love Christmas, in fact, it’s my favorite holiday. But it seems that everyone is forgetting about one thing: Thanksgiving. We’re so excited for the Christmas tree, presents and music that we forget about the great feast that kicks off the Christmas season itself. Where’s our respect? Can’t we just wait another four weeks to put all the light up? Luckily, most of State High thinks so.

“It annoys me so much when people decorate for Christmas before Thanksgiving,” Colleen Jones, a junior at State High said. “It’s one of my biggest pet peeves.” According to Google, 92% of Americans celebrate Christmas, Jones’ family included. According to Netscape, 46% of Americans consider Christmas their favorite holiday, Jones included once again. So why do people like us become angered at the sight of Christmas decorations before the fourth Thursday in November? “We can’t celebrate one holiday before the next,” Jones said. “It takes away from the excitement and joy of Thanksgiving.” I personally believe the exact same thing. It seems unfair to ourselves to take joy away from Thanksgiving by putting so much hope into Christmas. I feel as if we can’t truly appreciate Thanksgiving if we sit around wishing for the Christmas season to come sooner. Sebastian Caceres, another junior at State High, also believes the same. “It just doesn’t make sense to me dude,” Caceres said. “How can people just skip over such a huge holiday? Especially a holiday with as much meaning as Thanksgiving!”

Although it seems like we are all in agreement here at State High, there are always naysayers. To you vile creatures that virtually skip over Thanksgiving yet dare to call yourselves Americans, I have one word. December. The only acceptable month to celebrate Christmas in. I know it’s tempting elderly neighbor, but just put Santa away for four more weeks. The turkey will be ready soon buddy.