It’s the week before Thanksgiving, and right on schedule, my husband and I are fighting over whether or not we can listen to Christmas music yet. Our poor Alexa device keeps innocently starting Christmas playlists, only to be shouted at to stop because Christmas is more than a month away. After the fifth go-round of “Alexa, play Christmas music—“ “Alexa, STOP!” the device gave us the phone number of a divorce lawyer.

I am firmly on Team No-Christmas-Until-After-Thanksgiving. We usually spend Black Friday in the mountains cutting down our Christmas tree, because that’s the earliest day I’ll allow it. My husband, however, is one of those people who thinks that Christmas begins as soon as Halloween ends. This year, he told me he wanted to get our tree earlier because he wanted as much Christmas cheer as possible to combat the absolute suck that has been 2020. I have to admit, it was a persuasive argument. We could all use a little extra cheer this year.