Step No. 11 - Put up the Christmas tree a full month early

It's pretty, but there's always room for more.

No, I'm not talking about a Menorah or Festivus pole; I'm talkin' 'bout a beautiful, tall, full evergreen tree.

One of the best parts of the holiday season is seeing a fully decorated tree with so many lights and reflective decorations that it burns one's retinas to gaze upon it directly. This follows my holiday mantra, "It's not done until it's overdone." Normally I'm all about the tasteful restraint and austere minimalism engendered by growing up with Gap advertisements in the 1990s, but the holidays are the time for aesthetic surpression to take a flying leap.

While many shun the idea of jumping into the holidays too early lest it remind them of crowded malls and superficial cheer, they have forgotten the joy of beholding colourful, shiny trees. Of course, one must maximise one's time with said tree. The simple rule is: As of 'Black Friday' it's all fair game. Then you have to leave the tree up until the Feast of the Epiphany, January 6. That extends the Christmas tree goodness for nearly a month and a half.

When you take down your tree and all the lights are put away, the corner where once your tree stood always seems dark and drab by comparison. All is not lost. If you've an apartment or house sufficiently large to dedicate a room to one task, you can move Christmas into there and have it all year round!* It can be a guilty pleasure that you hide from naysayers and other holiday humbugs.

*Predicated on the assumption that you will use an artificial tree.