Barbara Ortagus »

Today my 5-year old daughter asked me when we would be putting up our Christmas tree.  Oh my goodness!  I feel like we just finished carving pumpkins and already we are thinking about decorating for the next holiday.

There is little debate that the holidays have been significantly commercialized.  Whether this has gone to far depends on your perception I guess.  I don’t have anything against decorating in the spirit of the holidays, especially if it brings forth feelings of generosity, kindness and goodwill untoward others.

I am not a fan of retail stores simply trying to make a few extra bucks by pimping the next holiday in hopes of eking out a few more days of sales.  That is taking things too far in my opinion.  The best compromise is commercial activity that endeavors to promote the true meaning of the holiday.  Then everybody wins, but this is often a lofty goal.

When I was growing up we never put the tree up until just a couple of weeks before the big day.  We never put it up in the middle of November, but as I drive through the neighborhood I can see other families have already put up their trees and are displaying them in their windows.  Is this not ridiculously too soon?  When do you guys put up your trees?