As soon as Halloween came to a close and everyone put away their fake spider webs and their cackling witches, I felt it happening.

I felt the ornaments and trees and carols closing in.

I went to the store and all I could see was this.

And this.

And this.

And don’t get me wrong, I love Christmas. Christmas is a wonderful holiday, and I think that most people, like me, might actually enjoy the anticipation of Christmas even more than the day itself. Watching Christmas movies, spending time with family, drinking hot chocolate, listening to Christmas carols. It’s a magical season.

The problem that seems to be getting worse every year is how early the season comes. In all of our excitement over Christmas, we have completely forgotten about Thanksgiving.

And I know that a lot of people have a lot of opinions about Thanksgiving and the way it began and the legitimacy of its sanctity, but Thanksgiving has evolved to be a holiday about spending time with family, sharing what you have with those you love, and being thankful for all of the things you’ve been blessed with.

And frankly, I think that’s a pretty great reason to celebrate.

So keeping all of this in mind, I have some extremely important rules to impart on the general population of America that has fallen into the routine of going directly from “boo” to “ho ho ho.”

First and foremost, enjoy Thanksgiving dinner. Enjoy your family, enjoy your friends. Take a moment to understand how blessed you are. Because if you’re celebrating Thanksgiving with a turkey and your family, you’re extremely blessed.

In reality, the end of Thanksgiving dinner is really the herald for the Christmas season. As soon as you’ve finished with Thanksgiving dinner and all the leftovers are put away, that’s when you can break out the eggnog, pop in “It’s A Wonderful Life,” and have a candy cane.

When it comes to Christmas trees and decorations, that’s what the day after Thanksgiving is for. This whole idea of Black Friday has kind of ruined this for a lot of people, but I digress.

On the day after Thanksgiving, you get up, go cut down a Christmas tree, and put the ornaments on it. Put up the Christmas lights and any other decorations you’ve got, and then sit back, relax, and admire them while you watch a Christmas movie or two.

After this point, it’s go time. Celebrate Christmas as much as you want and on the biggest scale you can imagine. That’s what the season is for.

Just don’t forget about Thanksgiving while you’re at it.