It’s now the week before Christmas and it has become one long Christmas season, starting the day after Halloween.

The one thing I always cherished about the Christmas season was decorating the day after Thanksgiving with my grandparents. But to be honest, I don’t even remember the fall season this year. It was Halloween before school started and then there was Christmas, seemingly as if Thanksgiving didn’t even exist.

This year my neighbors had their Christmas tree up the week after Halloween. I mean come on people. I love Christmas as much as the next person, but the things that make the Christmas season special have been systematically stripped away.

The season that is meant for family and love has been so commercialized and spread out that this one time of the year causes more stress than relief for families. Most people are weary of Christmas even before Christmas arrives. If you think about it, nearly three months of the year is spent talking about Christmas, buying things for Christmas, worrying about Christmas, decorating and tearing down for Christmas.

But many people this year will remember the reason for the season. Hopefully that will be you. Remember that Christmas is the gift of giving and how many people this year are thinking about giving to other people, even when they financially can’t. This is the time of year that so many people come together to open their hearts and spend so much effort thinking about other people.

So while I know there is too much commercialism of Christmas, and yes, this time is stressful, do your best to try to live in the moment, love your family, and remember what Christmas is supposed to mean.