Decorating for the Holidays Early is Healthy For You

Did you spend the weekend getting all your Christmas decorations out? I came home yesterday and noticed one of my neighbors has their Christmas tree up already. The first thing that went through my mind is, wow, that’s early!

I think Thanksgiving gets lost in the shuffle of Christmas. And even though I don’t like ANY of the Thanksgiving food I love the holiday! I get up and watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and then I watch the National Dog Show and wait for my family to arrive in the afternoon. I love spending time with all of them and then we have Thanksgiving dinner with lasagna, garlic bread and ice cream cake! That’s my ideal Thanksgiving dinner.

But I have a lot of friends who LOVE to decorate for Christmas so they can’t wait to get everything out. And now there is research that shows decorating your house early is good for you. The study found that putting up decorations triggers happy childhood memories and makes you think of happier times with your family and friends. It goes on to find that when you decorate early you have a tendency to interact with your neighbors more, plus when your house has lots of Christmas lights and decorations it’s viewed as being more friendly. Although people who are dealing with the loss of a family member during this time don’t really have those happy feelings, they do still connect with people because of the decorations.

So maybe you should be putting up the tree and lights soon. I have a pre-lit tree that is already decorated in my garage with a sheet over it. All I have to do is drag it in and plug it in but I sometimes don’t even do that. Maybe I will this year.