November 1st, The Official Start of Christmas?

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Christmas is starting earlier and earlier every year.  I mentioned in a previous post that I've already started thinking about it and researching the top toys this year, which is absolutely unheard of for me.  In the past, I never started thinking about Christmas until Thanksgiving.  That was the start for me.  So, I started wondering, when is the official start of Christmas? 

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The local radio station has always started their 24/7 Christmas music, beginning on Thanksgiving day.  This year, I noticed the Hallmark channel on television started showing Christmas movies like a week or two before Halloween!  Department stores started putting out Christmas items almost simultaneously with Halloween decorations.  The big retailers put out their Christmas catalogs before Halloween. 

Credit: Jo Naylor

I've seen people tweeting about starting their Christmas shopping.  Relatives have Facebooked about putting up their Christmas tree.  I mean, it just seems like a lot.  And much too soon.  When I was a kid, I definitely could have started the holidays in July and carried on right through Christmas and beyond I would have been completely okay with that.  Listening to Christmas music on the way to the first day of school?  "Why not?!"  Watching the Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer movie in September?  "Sure!"  Putting up Christmas decorations in October?  "Sounds like a good idea to me!" I would've said.  I was that into it.

But I feel like, had I indulged and gone ahead and done those things, it would've taken away from the magic of the Christmas season.  Christmas only comes once a year, and then it goes and it's gone for another whole year, which seems like an eternity when you're a kid.  And part of the magic of Christmas is in the waiting, the anticipation, the build up.  So, if it's always here, it'll eventually just be like, "Christmas?  Meh."  Which, I feel like is what's happened for me over the past several years, and why I haven't been as into it as I was when I was a kid.   

So, Christmas starts right after Thanksgiving and is over New Year's Day, for me.  Mm I totally wrong?  Am I missing something?  When does Christmas start for you?  Does it start today, November 1st, or later?  Please, enlighten me in the comments section below.