Staff Stance: Every grading period, the LASA Liberator staff present their opinion on an important current issue in the form of an editorial written by Commentary. The opinions in the piece represent those of the staff as a collective, not of each individual member.
As the holiday season approaches, there tends to be an unbreakable urge to shop and decorate. Stores are filled with the most magical, festive decorations. Shopping and decorating are tightly related. To justify our purchase, stores make us think Wow, this would be wonderful in my home. This influx of decoration shopping and purchasing generally means an increased eagerness to begin decorating. Thus, a question arises: when is it too early to start decorating? When should stores begin selling decorations for each winter holiday?
According to the LASA Liberator staff, the major concern when decorating for the winter holidays is time. Spectacular decoration requires time to set up. Specifically for Halloween, students find themselves too busy to plan for and set up decorations, as it happens around the middle of the first semester, so they usually have to utilize their free time during weekends or other holidays to decorate. Stores should therefore follow that decoration schedule. Our staff thinks that Halloween decorations should begin appearing in stores as early as late August, ideally around September. There would be enough time just as the spooky season rolls in along the fall, and they wouldn’t want to be bothered with anything relating to Halloween during the summer.
Similarly to how stores treat Halloween, the stores should also implement the same strategy for the winter holidays. Since the Winter holidays require even more time to set up, many think that stores should begin advertising for winter decorations earlier, around October; however, it was mentioned that mostly they begin decorating after Halloween. There is also the strong belief against having winter decorations take over the shelves so completely in late October that there are no more Halloween decorations; some families prefer to set up for Halloween later.
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Every family treats decorations differently, but among our staff body there are a few common consensuses for Halloween decorations. Halloween decorations go up in October. Most families will not put the decorations up any later than two weeks into October, as some families participate in holiday decoration competitions. Conversely, the most common problems for Halloween arise with the issue of carved pumpkins. Carved pumpkins are the centerpieces of Halloween decorations for most, and people have very specific ideas on when they should set them up. In October, people slowly put up the decorations during their free time, like during weekends, but the pumpkins are restricted to later. The pumpkins are vulnerable to both decay and animals; sometimes, squirrels get into them. As a result, most families choose to finish their decorations with them, and some even specifically prevent the squirrels by applying spices to the pumpkins beforehand.
On the other hand, the winter holidays are a little different for everyone. Holidays like Christmas, Hanukkah, and Diwali are all celebrated in the winter. A plurality believes that Christmas should be kept until after Thanksgiving, as that is a long-standing tradition among some families; however, others still mention that they set up their Christmas decorations in November anyway. Some say they utilize their time during the Thanksgiving break to decorate for Christmas. According to our staff, there are not many reasons for setting up decorations in such an order: it has simply been tradition.
As we have concluded from our staff survey, the common theme for setting up Halloween decorations is in October, and for the winter holidays, it is after Thanksgiving. So, when is too early for decorating? Honestly, it is never too early, decorate whenever you want. Just understand that when your house gets unwanted stares, maybe it has been too early. Happy Holidays!
