Christmas Music Season & First Favorites

Happy Veteran's Day to all of our military men and women!  I am so grateful to all of you who have made our country what it is today.  Growing up, Veteran's Day always had a big town-wide parade, and on the way home, we popped in the first Christmas tape of the season.  Yes, my parents made up this artificial day to start Christmas music season, probably because they knew I would have started listening to it on constant repeat in August.  I've been trying hard to avoid Christmas music until now (even though it's been on the radio for over a week), but today, the Pandora station comes back to the top of the list, and I preset as many Christmas stations as possible in the Jeep.  It also seemed fitting to get my first red cupped caramel brulee latte!  (PSA: tomorrow through Sunday is Starbucks's annual buy one get one on all holiday drinks from 2:00-5:00 each day!)

And just because it's topical... putting my two cents in about this Starbucks cup ridiculousness.  I love the following tweet (about trolling Starbucks by telling them your name is "Merry Christmas") from this Buzzfeed article: "Which is dumber, thinking there's a war on Christmas, or protesting a company by buying its products?" 

While Christmas music season starts today, there was never any Christmas decorating until the day after Thanksgiving when I was younger.  My mom always had the cutest little pilgrims and turkey decorations, and on Black Friday, we always got up early to chop down our tree and as soon as we got home, my mom took down all of the autumn pieces while I unwrapped the Christmas ornaments and my dad strung the lights on the tree.

Now, it seems like everyone is going Christmas crazy so early!  My childhood friends always thought we were nuts for having our tree up in November.  Now, I walk through Charleston and everything is decorated and my neighbors are starting to put their trees up.  Even living in the South, we still love getting a real tree, so we will wait a couple of weeks for that, but as I take down the Halloween-specific decorations, it's been fun to add a few Christmas (but more wintery) accents.  I found these fun pieces that will fit in nicely with my pumpkins, leaves, and fall berries so that our apartment is constantly decorated through the full-on start of Christmas season after Thanksgiving.  

guest towels ||| garland ||| ice bucket

snow globe ||| throw pillow ||| candle

trivet ||| blanket ||| small, medium, large tree

And if you want to see even more "favorite things," click here to check out Oprah's!  I love that her whole list is on Amazon this year.

• When do you start decorating for Christmas?
• What's your favorite seasonal Starbucks drink?