If Christmas is my favorite holiday, then Thanksgiving comes in a ridiculously close second.

The food is no small part of that! Give me a huge turkey crammed with stuffing and slathered in gravy, and you’ll have the happiest girl on the face of the planet. I’m also a huge fan of cranberry sauce. It seems like lately cranberry sauce has been getting a lot of hate, but I don’t know why! Who wouldn’t want this awesome excuse to basically drown your food in sugar? I do! Mashed potatoes are also in my top 10 favorite foods list. Both the regular kind and sweet potatoes, in case you wanted to know. Honestly, just give give me all the carbs right now. If you couldn’t tell by now, I could never do keto!

All kidding aside, I think that Thanksgiving is the perfect way to start the Christmas season. Some might even accuse me of just trying to get Thanksgiving out of the way so that I can officially start Christmas. You see, one of my favorite traditions is to put up Christmas decorations the day after Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is over, therefore we can really start Christmas, right? Not so fast. In my opinion, Thanksgiving, and by extension the whole Thanksgiving season, is really the introduction to Christmas. The Prelude, or perhaps a Preamble. Different from but still very much a part of Christmas. Starting Christmas with Thanksgiving makes perfect sense to me, because the thing I have most to be thankful for started with that very first Christmas. It is ultimately because of my Savior that I have everything that I am most grateful for: my family, my church, and so many other little details that come through them. It is because of Him that it is all possible, and for Him I will be forever thankful.

So, yes. I put up my Christmas decorations the day after Thanksgiving. My perspective on this has evolved over the years. I definitely used to be one of those grinches that hated hearing Christmas music before Thanksgiving. I accused people of glossing over the “thankful” part of the season and heading straight into the “greedy” part of the holidays. Some of that still lingers, especially when I hear of stores having their Black Friday sales all day on Thanksgiving Day. Cringe. But I’ve definitely softened, and my perspective has matured a little.

So now, bring on the Christmas music! Give me just a little longer to celebrate the things that matter most to me.

The radio officially started playing Christmas songs last week, and I seriously squealed when I realized it! The song “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” really nailed it on that title. Christmastime is the best season of the whole year. Forget pumpkin spice! Who needs flower buds bursting into bloom? Throw away all of my fresh peaches from right off the tree! Give me Christmas any day!

I have tons of favorite Christmas songs, including, but not limited to: “O Holy Night,” “Let it Snow,” and “White Christmas” (the Bing Crosby version, of course!). But the song that makes me tear up almost every time has always been Silent Night. An oldie but a goodie, this song embodies what I love most about Christmas. I heard Michael Buble’s version of it on the radio just a couple days ago. Usually I find kids singing with adults a bit too contrived for my taste, if that’s the right way to put it. This version, however, really felt right with the kids singing. After all, I think children have a special place in our Savior’s heart.

One of the things I love most about this particular Christmas song is that it focuses on Christ. I feel like too often Baby Jesus gets lost among the talk of Santa Claus and presents and holiday parties. I love to watch Christmas movies with my kids, and it is a rare thing indeed to hear any mention of the real reason for the season. It almost seems like the public deliberately avoids Him so as not to offend anyone with their religion. Heaven forbid we should talk about our religion at Christmastime! I saw an article title recently that claimed that listening to Christmas music on repeat stressed people out. I think those people are missing the point. If Christmas stresses you out, just maybe you need to reexamine your priorities. If whatever you’re doing this Christmas doesn’t spark joy, then perhaps it’s time to go Marie Kondo on your holidays.

Now I’m just getting ridiculous. Back to the point.

When I was a kid, one thing my family did almost every year was go to the D.C. Temple to see the Christmas lights. It is a beautiful sight, to see the House of the Lord, a literal home for our Savior, decorated so spectacularly in honor of His birth. Yet even with the twinkling lights all around, what still stands out far above the rest is the temple itself. When we would drive close to the grounds, the song “Silent Night” often filled my mind. Seeing the gleaming temple emerge through the trees was always a special moment for me. Crowds and noise are inevitable at an event like this, but somehow the temple always remained a serene place. “Silent Night” now carries those feelings back to my heart every year. I even love singing it to my girls as a lullaby, and I hope they’ll love this song as much as I do!

And my kids are SO EXCITED!!!

And who am I kidding? SO AM I!!! Christmas has always been my favorite time of year. It has been especially so since I’ve had kids. And even more so since E’s birthday is on Christmas Eve. My kids are still young enough that planning for Christmastime is more fun than stressful, so I’m enjoying every bit while I can. E has been so excited that she has started wanting to set up Christmas decorations, and it’s not even Thanksgiving yet. I conceded a little, so yesterday we pulled out a small box that had some stuffed animals and a fun nightlight that my girls love.

We are not, however, going to put up the tree until after Thanksgiving. When I was growing up, we always pulled the Christmas decorations out of the attic the day after Thanksgiving, then we got a fresh Christmas tree sometime soon after. My family now has a fake tree (so convenient!) so we can set that up whenever we want. I’m hoping to convince T that we should make setting up the tree the day after Thanksgiving our own family tradition.

My middle girl, C, is too young to really grasp Christmas yet. She’s excited, and she knows presents are involved, but that’s mostly because her big sister is so excited and talks about it all. the. time. E is almost 5, and she totally gets what’s going on. Her favorite thing to ask for right now is princess costumes. We watch The Little Mermaid. “Mommy, I want an Ariel costume!” We watch Frozen. “I really want an Elsa costume!” Even though she already has one. And can you tell we got Disney +? We’re trying to help her understand that she’s not going to get everything she asks for, partly because there are other fun things that Mom and Dad want to get for her, too. Not to mention she has no concept of a budget yet! We’ll see how things go down.

This fun printable is not your usual Christmassy style! It features the original text of Charles Dickens’ famous novel, A Christmas Carol. The Ghost of Christmas Future isn’t the cheeriest of characters in this book, but unlike the Grim Reaper here, our Christmas futures don’t have to be bleak. I look forward to many happy Christmases with my family!