It just isn't the holidays until...

[Serephino]

I was just thinking about something.  I know Christmas movies and the like come on the day after the Halloween, but it for some reason it just doesn't feel like the holiday season to me until I make the first big cup of hot chocolate.  I can't explain it, but I only drink the stuff from mid November until after New Years. 

So, all you people of E, do you have a little holiday ritual that starts the holiday season for you?

[Jag]

I drink hot chocolate year round. More so now that my work provides it to me for free. >.>

But yeah...for me it's mostly the Christmas movies. I don't feel like the season has started till I've dug out my Christmas movie DVDs. Specifically the Rankin/Bass Jack Frost. It's my favorite. I've always loved it. There isn't a part of it that I don't love to death...but I can't watch it before December 1st or after January 1st. It just doesn't feel right.

[Shjade]

Since the holidays have been, for me, equivalent to "heavier workload" for the last eight or nine years, it's never really "the holidays" for me anymore. Instead, around mid to late November when all the jingle-bell and snow advertisements start showing up everywhere, my responses is, in general, "Right, time to deal with this again."

That said? Steam sales. When the Steam sales start up, that's the closest I get to that Christmas feeling anymore. :|

[Beguile's Mistress]

I get out my tree and start decorating it and making a new ornament every year.  Since the nephews came along I make ornaments for them, too.

[Serephino]

I drink hot chocolate year round. More so now that my work provides it to me for free. >.>

But yeah...for me it's mostly the Christmas movies. I don't feel like the season has started till I've dug out my Christmas movie DVDs. Specifically the Rankin/Bass Jack Frost. It's my favorite. I've always loved it. There isn't a part of it that I don't love to death...but I can't watch it before December 1st or after January 1st. It just doesn't feel right.

I remember watching all day marathons of those on ABC Family channel.  I did have a favorite, but I can't remember it atm.  I've seen them all like 20 times.

[Jag]

I remember watching all day marathons of those on ABC Family channel.  I did have a favorite, but I can't remember it atm.  I've seen them all like 20 times.

I have all the Rankin Bass on DVD. Jack Frost and Santa Claus is Coming to Town were my favorites (Jack Frost being my absolute favorite). ^_^

[NotoriusBEN]

It just isn't the holidays until...

-christmas music starts playing... in october.
-a walmart employee is trampled on black friday.
-television networks put programming on auto pilot and you get to watch 24 HOURS of "A Christmas Story"  (Gonna shoot your eye out!)


wow I sound pretty jaded. Im really not, but I just get so tired of 40 days out of the year building up to this thing. Thank god I quit retail near a decade ago.

[Sasquatch421]

It just isn't the holidays until I get my first carton of Egg Nog and the one radio station around me starts putting some Trans-Siberian Orchestra in their playlist.

I'm the only one in the family that likes egg nog so I don't have to worry about anyone stealing it and my brother introduced me to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. That's the only things I like about the holidays, I'd sooner be in class then deal with X-Mas.

[Serephino]

I love Trans-Siberian Orchestra.  I listen to them all year round.  'A Mad Russian Christmas' is one of my favorites.

[Mithlomwen]

I'm still trying to figure out how it became that time of year again already.   :o

That said, for me I don't really start feeling 'holiday-ish' until close to Thanksgiving.  I absolutely refuse to look at anything or listen to anything even remotely related to the Holidays until AFTER Halloween. 

It starts to feel like the Holidays for me when I wake up Thanksgiving morning and see the Macy's Thanksgiving day parade on TV. 

My grandma always made Pizzelles around the holidays, and when she passed away, that tradition fell to me.  So when I start making the first batch of those, it really feels like the Holidays.  *laugh* 

Another rather strange thing, is that once I venture into the Christmas department of the stores, the smell of tinsel instantly makes me think of Christmas.  Brings back memories of hanging the stuff on the tree, and wrapping myself up in it when I was little.  ;D

[Lux12]

I'd have to agree.Maybe it's just my OCD, but that really does bother me too.For whatever reason it just bothers me when people suddenly switched into Christmas almost immediately after Halloween.

[Oniya]

Shaking out the can of jellied cranberry sauce that we have to get for Mr. Oniya - and then making the whole-berry stuff from scratch for me.

[Silver]

When I buy all cranberry sauce that I can find
When I get my schedule for Black Friday and every day after.
Until a customer actually is crying because they missed the morning special by five minutes.
When Mini-Me asks My mother not to kill turkeys and hams because she'll die and go to hell and there's no dessert there..(Her words not mine!)

Yes... it's that time again.. *sighs*

[Tersius]

The circus comes to town every year in November. My holiday season starts when I take my family to the circus the day before Thanksgiving!

[Serephino]

The circus comes to town every year in November. My holiday season starts when I take my family to the circus the day before Thanksgiving!

That actually sounds like fun.  I went to a circus once when I was a kid.  I don't know what happened to it, but I had a picture of my grandpa and I holding a huge albino python.

[Observing Trifles]

For me, the holidays are all about stuff that smells good. My mom would start lighting bayberry candles right around Thanksgiving, then I'd start baking, and the whole house would smell fantastic. So for me, the holidays officially begin when I light a holiday candle and break out my apron to start baking cookies and cakes.

[Avis habilis]

... the first Messiah performance of the year.

Yeah, it's supposed to be appropriate for Easter too, but who ever rolls it out then?

[Moraline]

... Until I have my first meal that sets me up for weeks more of guilt ridden gorging.

Generally this time of year, I double my cardio workouts in an attempt to stem fat ass syndrome.

[DukeJohn]

Watching Christmas movies/listening to Christmas music and hot chocolate are my two big things.

[Sarena]

It'd doesn't start feeling like the holiday season until Thanksgiving day.  All of the cooking, football playing in the background, Wizard of Oz that evening.  Then the next morning, we put up the Christmas tree.  Starting December 1st, we'll watch one Christmas movie a night all month long.  Then about mid-December, we pack up the kids and go down to my grandmother's for a day for the big family get together.  Christmas day is a small celebration at home with me, the mister, my mom and the kids, a nice, big breakfast, more football and a few rounds of video games maybe.  Then on New Year's Eve, we stay up late and watch the ball drop, tuck in the kids as they pass out while waiting, and just hang out on New Year's Day.  Then on January 2nd, we take down the tree and pack everything away until next year. 

I'm not sure why I've always associated The Wizard of Oz with Thanksgiving, but there you go.  That's what really makes it feel like the holiday season for me.   ;D

[DudelRok]

...someone else reminds me. >.>

[Beguile's Mistress]

The holidays can begin.  I've seen my most favorite holiday commercial for the first time this season. ;D

Eat'n Park Christmas Star Commercial

[SpiralSpider]

Thanksgiving starts the Holiday season for me. But it's my favorite holiday so, if certain things are absent, then I feel let-down. :/

I need T-day to be full of home-cooked food, served in someone's home (preferably my own) and not a restaurant - and there has to be lots of family and/or friends around me. Certain foods make it complete for me, too, like mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie and green bean casserole. (Although that last one only became a staple during the last few years)

[Tsenta]

When the Charlie Brown Christmas specials start to air on ABC.

[Torch]

It isn't the holiday season until we listen to "Alice's Restaurant" while deep frying the turkey.