Fatten me up and call me Santa because as of Nov. 1, Christmas season has come to Kentucky. Sure, the somewhat less enjoyable Thanksgiving still awaits us, but we can all agree that the true star of the holiday season is Christmas.

That’s not to say Thanksgiving shouldn’t be celebrated or appreciated. It’s a great holiday to show gratitude and carve up some turkey with friends and family. And the pie– YUM! However, even though Thanksgiving is Queen B Blair Waldorf’s favorite holiday, it should be recognized as what it truly is: a pre-game to Christmas.

How does one even compare the bare minimum of food, family and football to food, family, gifts, snow, Christmas trees, and Frosty the Snowman? Even the Grinch chose Christmas over Thanksgiving which, for the record, has far fewer movies and songs associated with it. My Christmas jams playlist is longer than Santa’s naughty and nice lists combined. Can you name one Thanksgiving song as recognizable as “Jingle Bells,” “Deck the Halls,” “Silent Night,” “Feliz Navidad,” “Let it Snow” or “Winter Wonderland?” If someone sang “All I Want for Thanksgiving is You,” wouldn’t you scream and run away? You don’t “Have Yourself a Merry Little Thanksgiving” and “Grandma Didn’t Get Run Over by a Turkey” because Thanksgiving simply isn’t as frosty and fun as Christmas.

There’s also no such thing as 12 Days of Thanksgiving. You might get three days at best for Thanksgiving break (as opposed to the month-long winter/Christmas break), but even then it’s overshadowed by the wildness of Black Friday, which now basically starts on Thanksgiving Thursday. Perhaps the real culprit of the lack of Thanksgiving spirit is Black Friday, not early Christmas celebrations.

Ultimately, the feeling of Thanksgiving just isn’t the same as Christmas. Even as you get older and the gifts get fewer and fewer, childhood memories of Christmas morning will keep you giddy and gleeful when Halloween ends and Nov. 1 comes around. After all, the anticipation is the best part, isn’t it?

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