A highly debated topic, when entering the month of December, is when is it acceptable to put up your Christmas tree? Some may say after Thanksgiving while others prefer to have their tree up for a good portion of the year. Given the circumstances with the COVID-19 pandemic, many families have begun to decorate their trees earlier than in previous years.

Freshman Evelyn Gaertner explains that her family generally puts up their tree in correspondence with the weather of that year. As the temperature begins to shift to be more winter like, they generally begin decorating for the Christmas season. Gaertner’s family put up their tree earlier than in previous years this year because they believe getting into the Christmas spirit seems to make everyone happy and with all of the negativity surrounding COVID-19 it was a much needed break.

“It is acceptable to put up your Christmas tree when the temperature starts getting cold because you want to start drinking cocoa and eating soup and that brings Christmas vibes,” Gaertner said. “It really varies when my family puts up our Christmas tree. My mom and I both love Christmas and my dad usually is kinda a grinch. He doesn’t like putting it up early so around my birthday, the beginning of November, I usually start decorating my room for Christmas but this year we [also] put up our Christmas tree and my dad hasn’t really minded.”

Unlike Gaertner, sophomore Alice Claassen firmly believes that Christmas trees should not be decorated until after Thanksgiving at the earliest. She explains that it is acceptable to put up your Christmas tree at any time but it is preferred to wait and decorate it until after Veterans day at the earliest in order to be respectful.

“My family normally puts up our tree at the end of November or the beginning of December,” Claassen said. “We don’t necessarily make it an event to put up our Christmas tree but we do try to decorate it as a family. It’s not necessarily a tradition, [to decorate the Christmas tree after Thanksgiving even if the tree is put up earlier in the month] it’s more of me refusing to allow them to decorate it because I say that you must wait until after Thanksgiving at the least.”

On the other hand, Claassen believes that people can put up Christmas outdoor lights at any time within November. Since these lights are generally outside it may become dangerous to put them up as the weather gets colder.

“I think that you can put up outdoor lights anytime during November because you can leave them off until December,” Claassen said. “My family currently has our lights up, [however] I think they are broken or just not plugged in yet.”

Junior Madelynn Hamm agrees with Claassen’s idea that Christmas trees should wait to be put up until after Thanksgiving. Approximately 60 percent of NHS students surveyed also agree. However, similar to Gaertner, Hamm and her family decided to put their tree up earlier this year.

“Personally, I think Christmas trees should be put up after Thanksgiving, but to compensate, listening to Christmas music before Thanksgiving is okay,” Hamm said. “My family usually puts up the tree a few days after Thanksgiving, but this year we put it up before then because my niece likes to play with the ornaments.”

Hamm began listening to Christmas music this year on Nov. 1. This is a great alternative to decorating for Christmas earlier in the year. Hamm believes that in order to be respectful to Halloween and ‘spooky season’, you should generally wait until after Halloween to listen to Christmas music.

“I think you should be able to listen to Christmas music anytime after Halloween, in order to fully celebrate and respect the spooky season. That way you can start getting good Christmas vibes,” Hamm said. “However, Thanksgiving cannot be forgotten, which is why you don’t start celebrating Christmas season 100 percent right away after Halloween, and also why putting your tree up before Thanksgiving is disrespecting the giving season.”

Although there is much debate around when to put up your tree, it is generally accepted to take down your tree anywhere from Dec. 26 to Jan. 2.