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I don't like seeing stuff appear on shelves for holidays two-three+ months in advance. But people have to make sure they are ready for "the holidays" I guess?
Thanksgiving and Christmas are about family and friends for me. I work both holidays this year, and getting together with the family is pretty much impossible (we're all spread out over the US West Coast).
I won't talk about my Thanksgiving traditions, but will my Christmas traditions. I don't really have enough money to go about buying presents for many of my friends and family, if there's something solidly on my mind that I know they want then I'll try and go out of my way to get them that thing, but it's difficult, and I don't worry about it too much. At the same time, I don't expect to get anything for Christmas, simply getting together with people and celebrating is good enough for me. I always make a big huge batch of homemade Egg Nog around Christmas, and throw a nice quaint close-friend Nog party, and we all get sloshed on my nice recipe.
The other tradition I've tried doing, but have lacked the ability to do is to get a license to cut my own christmas tree, I can't stand fake trees. When I was a child my favorite part of Christmas preparations was going with the whole family, piling into a car/truck, and driving to National Forest area, and spending the day trudging through feet of snow to find that perfect Christmas tree, and cut it down. Really, the tree didn't matter, it was the fun we had getting it, from strapping a sled to the back of the truck, and sliding around on icy roads, to simply sledding through the mountains, starting a snowball fight, or tackling a sibling or even my dad in the snow. Even just being so bundled up and cozy, and then that feeling of getting back to the vehicle, and warming up inside and then going home and having some hot cocoa. That's the one tradition I always try to do every year, but none of my friends find falling two three feet into snow every step you take very entertaining, or we just don't have a vehicle to strap a tree to. I fully plan to do this when I have a family of my own though. That, and decorating the tree with my family were probably the most enjoyable aspects of Christmas for me.
Presents are nice, but getting frustrated or worried about the holidays seems like a pointless thing to me to let happen.
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