Okay, maybe not July — but my wife was adamant about an early tree.

Making Memories
Our daughter Jade is 3 and these might be her first Christmas memories. Needless to say, we’re super excited. But there was a little issue about the tree …

Traditions
When I was young, our family had a REAL tree and it had a lifespan of around 3 weeks. Because of this, our tree would be up 2 weeks before Christmas and we’d take it down after the new year. Ever since then, December 12th just FEELS right for setting up the family tree.

Maybe November?
In Canada, some stores set up Christmas trees the day after Halloween (November 1). For me, this is WAAAAAY too early. For my wife, this sounded like a GREAT idea.

Finding Peace
All November, we wrestled about Christmas tree dates. I was holding out for December 1st. Finally, we reached a compromise with November 25th — one month before Christmas. The convincing argument was United States didn’t have Thanksgiving until November 22nd. How can we celebrate Christmas before the USA celebrates Thanksgiving ???

I still feel “wrong” setting up a tree in November … but at least there’s peace in our home.