I went to Home Goods earlier this week (always a mistake). The Christmas decorations are out. October wasn’t even half over. The fall decorations have been shoved to the side and Santas and snowmen have taken over. I’ll admit I have no qualms buying Christmas decorations in October. In fact, if you want to get the good stuff, you’ve got to get to Home Goods NOW before it gets picked over, broken, and scratched. So I’m really ok with the appearance in stores.

My problem is Thanksgiving. I like to decorate for Thanksgiving. To my husband’s chagrin, we have three types of storage boxes for fall decorations. Some are called fall and include pumpkins, leaf wreaths, nut wreaths, and gourds. These come out in September and stay out until after Thanksgiving. Some are called Halloween (jack o’lanterns, ghosts – you know the drill). These come out in September and are put away right after Halloween. Then there are some called Thanksgiving, which includes turkeys and cornucopias. They come out after Halloween and get put away after Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving decorations are hard to find, however. Home Goods has one little end cap with turkey plates. I am hungry for more! I just bought a little glass turkey candy dish at Michael’s for $4 so that made me happy, but the truth is Thanksgiving isn’t a a holiday most people seem to be decorating for. Since I host Thanksgiving, I like to have my home beautifully decorated for this holiday.

In addition to the lack of decorations, a big problem with Thanksgiving is that it comes too late. By the time Thanksgiving arrives, everyone is focused on Christmas and some people even have their homes decorated for Christmas by Thanksgiving. If Thanksgiving were a couple of weeks earlier it would still feel like it is part of fall. Right now it is merely the kickoff to Christmas.