To each of us, the holidays and the traditions of our lives mean something different.

My mother had died when I was eight days old and I was raised by grandparents with not much money.

I honestly recall getting a coloring book (with some pages thoughtfully colored by my cousin) and a stocking monkey and a box of hard candy from church. But we had a tree and we had a gathering and we had food and we had fun at Christmas.

I wanted to pass on good memories to our children so being a little bit artistic and a little bit creative, I spun a few yarns and added a few elves and we wrapped a lot of presents and some were underwear, (individually) but the happiness was evident and that made us happy.

I think I did it, because those yarns and those elves and those myriads of packages have been repeated in those younger.

Christmas is beautiful to me. It can be very expensive and it can be not too expensive, but it requires sneakily planning and careful listening and using the money and resources that you have.

I love Santa and I love St. Nicholas and I love the elf on the shelf and I firmly believe that anyone that can use any of it to get good behavior out of crazy excited kids for a month is a bright parent.

That's how most of us did Christmas, and with ony one parent working. Today, it is a commercial period of time, which gets extended further and further away from the actual day. It's all about making sure the books are in the black, which is the complete opposite of the day of celebration.

I remember making things for my brothers and sisters to give them at Christmas. Now the mad rush starts earlier and earlier culminating in the day before Black Friday with people camping outside the stores.

I no longer believe in an "Outside God," but I do enjoy the music and the decorations, and the one day where people show they care about others.

The only thing constant in life is change

Yes the stores are rushing the season, they lost the meaning of Christmas decades ago...it's all about the almighty buck for them

It used to bother me that the stores had made the holiday so commercial, and started to push the holiday well before Thanksgiving, but I've gotten over it

Actually this year, like the stores, I'm pushing the holiday

my wife has advanced Alzheimer's. She's only in her 70's but I know we won't have many more Christmas holidays together

So, I'm putting the decorations up inside our home a lot earlier than usual this year. I'm hoping that the brightly colored decorations, the lights, the Christmas CD's and the keepsakes will spark a few more memories and I'll get to see glimpses of that wonderful gal that I married

and then one day we'll go over to Home Depot, and walk around inside the tent where they sell the Christmas trees...just to fill our nostrils with the wonderful aroma of the balsams, the hemlocks and the scotch pines...because that will bring back memories of the years when the kids were still young and the real trees we had made the whole house 'smell like Christmas'.

I'm looking forward to decorating

Good for you!

Hugs to you both from all three of us.

"The only thing constant in life is change" and "Actually this year, like the stores, I'm pushing the holiday"

Maybe everyone including myself should adjust to these difficult time by starting early (Christmas) to enjoy life and good memories/times.

So, I may put up my lights to Christmas display a bit early even thought the Villages authorities may not concur.

https://www.talkofthevillages.com/fo...c-show-313041/

Nice to know that, with all of these supply chain problems we keep reading about, they have the essentials sorted.

You are a most thoughtful husband. So sorry to hear about your wife.

{{{Hugs}}} to you both.

Our jaws were dropped when we saw the same at Lowes last week.

We are from the mid-atlantic and they don't put out Christmas stuff until, maybe, October. By then it is cool and you can embrace the idea of a white Christmas. It was a hot day and I wiped copious sweat from my brow as I gazed at the sparkling Christmas lights.

Fall is my favorite season, and this is my first one in Florida. This will be an adjustment. Halloween is supposed to be cool, Thanksgiving cold, and Christmas a hit-or-miss for snow.

Decorations for sale when it is 90+ degrees is a big swing-and-a-miss for me.

At least I get to wear shorts and a t-shirt for this year's winter. I'm told after a year or two you become a native and start to wear heavy jackets and stocking hats when it is in the 60's.