My Annual Holiday Timeline

It's that time of year again.

The holiday season has always been one of my favourites, and how lucky am I that it lasts an entire month!?

That being said, we also all know that companies really start the holiday season at the beginning of November (2 months). And some don't even wait until after Thanksgiving or Halloween, so they start running their ads and selling Christmas decor in October (3 months). And I swear, I've seen some stores even starting in September (4 months).

With this in mind, let me take you through my holiday season timeline.

Okay... I love Christmas, and the holiday season in general, but even I will eventually get tired of Christmas it's stretched out for too long, and personally, 1 month is enough. So much so that as a way to combat the holiday fatigue and ensure that I'm actually excited for Christmas by the time it arrives, I maintain a "No Christmas music and no Christmas decorations in the house until December 1st" policy.

I've found that while the stores are making the switch months in advance, by keeping Christmas at bay in my home, the month of December and the lead up to Christmas day still holds its magic.

November 1

Now, I'm not perfect, and while I do maintain my policy every year, I will admit that there are moments of weakness beginning on November 1st. Immediately after Halloween, the next thing to look forward to is Christmas, but it's too early! so, what do I do? Well, luckily the YouTube community has given me pieces of Christmas to keep me going, without having me fall all the way in.

Let me explain.

In my Google Calendar, I track many things, just to make sure I don't forget about birthdays, events, etc. Another thing that I do is save certain videos and set each of these to come up on a specific day every year.

As previously mentioned, immediately following Halloween, there isn't much else to look forward to except Christmas. Enter Zalinki's "A Christmas Miracle" video. It encompasses exactly what retail stores across the country are doing and how I feel about this sudden and far too early surge of Christmas energy.

So, on November 1st of every year, I am reminded and thus watch this video. Enjoy.

Note: the video includes some swearing and a firearm.

This video is a little cathartic for me. I know Christmas is coming, and I know I'm going to get more excited as we get closer to it, but it's too early. This video is a humorous way for me to quell that build up for a bit longer.

November 8

Okay, it's been a week, and guess what? The build up is happening! But I cannot submit to it, not yet.

Once again, I turn to my calendar that reminds me of this video by Brian David Gilbert. Please enjoy "It's November 8th".

Again, I watch this video, and it quells the build up, but it does give me a bit more of a taste of Christmas proportional to the time left before December 1st.

November 20

Alright, December is right around the corner but I must stand strong. I've done well so far, let's not fumble right near the end, but I also need a sneak peek at what's to come.

Luckily, Tom Cardy's got a song for this exact period in time. This is "Not Quite Almost Christmas Time".

Wasn't that fun? And yet, still not technically a Christmas song, so I'm in the clear. I can just cruise for a little over a week until...

December 1

It is time.

Welcome to December. Welcome (finally) to an entire month dedicated to the holidays.

It's at this point where my wife and I will unleash the holidays on our home. We listen to music, often from our dedicated Christmas Spotify playlist. We will turn on the faux fireplace more often while we work in the home office. We'll wear more plaid, and plaid-covered pyjamas. Large cozy Christmas sweaters? Yep! And of course, we decorate.

We usually decorate our house for Autumn, and those decorations stay up for the entirety of October to encompass Thanksgiving and Halloween. We put fake Autumn leaves in a variety of nooks and crannies throughout the house as a nice way to add colour and to bring the outdoors in without the cold and wet.

When we decorate for Christmas, however, it puts our Autumn decor to shame. I'm not saying we decorate as much as perhaps you've seen on Pinterest or on Christmas decorating shows, but most of the house does get a dose of Christmas.

We put up a wreath on the front door, and this year have added a wreath around our outdoor garage light. Adding a bit more to the outdoors as a first impression.

We twirl a pine branch garland down the stairway railing, often adding fairy lights within.

There are often bows strewn up in the main hallway as well as on the walls.

But the main point of focus, is the tree. In our case, three trees. I'll admit, it's a lot. But these are trees that my wife and I have amassed over the years from our families and when we first moved in together. We have two large trees, one that goes in the living room, and the other that went in the upstairs stairs landing. This year, it will go in the basement, since we've got that space in a proper usable state. Our third tree is three feet tall and often goes into our bedroom as a way to add some Christmas cheer when we first wake up in the morning, without overtaking the room.

Roughly 8 foot tree in the living room

6 foot tree in the basement

4 foot Christmas tree in the bedroom

Every year, we adjust the decorating to better suit our current room layout and to improve on what we learned in previous years. Last year was our first Christmas in our house, and while the living room tree looked nice in its corner, it also overlapped with the main entry point into the living room, which caused a bit of a bottleneck for movement. This year, we placed in a deeper corner so as to not repeat last year's issue.

We enjoy hosting for events throughout the year, but especially for Christmas. When we do, we expand our table to the number of guests.

We set up the table with a bit of decorum just for fun. This table can expand with multiple leaves with a range of two to 14 people.

We have a few hooks on the ceiling in the living room that are perfect for hanging a garland across the top of the windows.

We have a light-up star hanging from the ceiling and two wreaths hanging in the windows in the dining room

In the basement, we also have our TV and couch, so it's the perfect spot to create a cozy space. We've hung some stockings off the TV stand and added a wreath-like decoration piece. The basement tree is right next to it, and we just love watching movies here. Grab some hot chocolate, get in your pyjamas, and snuggle up under a blanket.

We've converted the old bar structure into a shelving unit that's placed behind the couch. A perfect place for this garland and small house figurines. All together, it creates a little holiday nook to cuddle up in.

Great! We're all in on Christmas at this point, and with every passing day, Santa draws near... That sounds ominous. Luckily Santa's the nice one, whereas Krampus... Ahem, anyway...

Movies

Once decorating is done, and we're in full Christmas mode, my wife and I also have our go-to movies that we watch every year.

One of our favourites is 2006's "The Holiday". I'm not usually one for romcoms, but this is an exception. The characters, the story, it just makes you feel all cozy, and that's what we want. We often end up shedding a few happy tears, and I love it.

There have been many versions of this story, but my personal all-time favourite is 1992's "The Muppet Christmas Carol". You pair the muppets and Michael Caine in the same movie? It's going to be a good time.

These don't fall into the must watch category, but I try to watch them every couple years; it's 1990's "Home Alone" and 1992's "Home Alone 2" of course! Oh, those silly parents with their frequent child neglect resulting in wacky hijinks! Fun movies.

You may not agree, but I don't care, because 1988's "Die Hard" IS a Christmas movie, and a great one at that!

We watch all of these movies some time between December 1st and December 25th, but these following films, we specifically watch on December 24th with my wife's family as part of a long-standing tradition.

We start off with 1966's "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" TV special. Then we go to 1964's "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" TV special. And to finish off the night, we watch 1954's "White Christmas". All three of these movies are musical with fun songs and dances.

Shows

Throughout December, we also often go to a few live performance Christmas shows.

Specifically, we enjoy listening to the National Arts Centre Orchestra play in their Christmas medley shows as well as their annual production of Handel's Messiah, where they include a large fifty (I believe) person choir. It's quite spectacular.

We also try to attend the Nutcracker ballet every year. It's a fun show with beautiful music and elaborate costumes and sets. I recommend it.

Celebrations

As for the holiday celebrations themselves, we have a Christmas day with my immediate family, and then another day with my wife's immediate family. We then have a day with my extended family on my father's side, and the same with my mother's side, and then another day with my mother-in-law's side. So, just a few celebrations... We're a little busy.

All the while, before, during, and after these celebrations, we try to fit in a few friend get-togethers.

And this year, we will be throwing our second annual holiday party where we invite many people and just have a great time as a final farewell to the year.

And with that, comes the end of my holiday timeline. I thank you for reading, and I hope you and yours have a great holiday season.

Happy Holidays 2025, see you in 2026!