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November is the Worst Month of the Holiday Season to Decorate for
Should you decorate for fall, winter, Christmas, or what?
In October, many people go all-out decorating for Halloween. They festoon their doors, doorsteps, and yards with various spooky items like skeletons, skulls, and spiders. Ghosts, gravestones, and Jack-o’-lanterns often join the haunted entourage.
For Hispanics who celebrate Dia de Los Muertos on Nov. 1, a lot of Halloween decorations are appropriate. But come Nov. 2, Halloween and Dia de Los Muertos are yesterday’s news, and it’s time to redecorate.
People used to decorate more for fall, and they kept those decorations up until Thanksgiving. But more and more, people are taking their cues from the stores and leapfrogging over Thanksgiving — straight into Christmas and winter decorations.
Making decorations do double duty
I’m all for holding on to fall decorations as much as possible. You can use pumpkins for Halloween as well as fall, but paint your pumpkins instead of carving them. Carved pumpkins rot quickly, but whole pumpkins can last for months.
But if you’re going to follow the skip-Thanksgiving crowd, here’s a tip to update your decorations: stick a Santa cap on decorations you…