Decorating for Christmas is generally a day after Thanksgiving thing for me. But there can be variation in how the week is going. This year, for instance, I did the Christmas switch on Thursday night after the turkeys were all put away (including the cooked one). I took away the metal pumpkin sign on my wreath proclaiming "Give thanks for this day" and replaced it with another sign exclaiming "O come let us adore Him."
I tried to wait until it was late enough that anyone passing by would have already had Thanksgiving dinner. I don't mind lights going up a little early, but I didn't want to take away the Thanksgiving sign too soon. But as I replaced the sign of thanks with the sign of adoring, well, that didn't feel like a quick change between holidays. It felt like one holiday preparing our hearts for the next.
Besides the fact that I simply like turkeys, I also greatly appreciate Thanksgiving as a holiday because it is intended to be about giving thanks. There is such importance in being grateful and expressing our thankfulness for what we have been given--even life itself. And being in that state of thankfulness is the perfect place to begin looking to the birth of Jesus.
We express our gratitude and we adore our God who came to save. This is why, more and more, Christmas isn't just about one day to me--it's about the holiday season. It's a time for reflection of the past year and the coming year; it's a time to remember blessings and refocus on what is important despite whatever struggles we have had. On this December 1st, I'm celebrating through it all.
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