Each month has a holiday associated with it: In January, we celebrate New Year’s; in March, we celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day, and in November, we celebrate Thanksgiving. Or so you would think.

Once October is over, the most hectic holiday season starts. The competition to have the best Christmas lights strung on a house, the tastiest pepper- mint bark or the longest Christmas list begins. And in the midst of the chaotic, yet exciting, holiday season you have Thanksgiving: the underrated day that tends to be brushed aside and forgotten about, the holiday that truly gets lost in the mix.

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday (besides my birthday, of course). But, Thanksgiving seems like a come- and-go holiday, here for one day and gone with the snap of a finger. Christmas, on the other hand, practically gets two full months of celebration.

Don’t get me wrong; I love Christmas too, but it does not pass Thanksgiving on my favorite holiday list.

Thanksgiving is the one holiday where my large Irish family comes together and spends time sitting around the dinner table eating home-cooked food and watching professional foot- ball. Because I enjoy the time I get to spend with my family, I enjoy Thanksgiving the most.

The holiday is slowly being forgotten because the planning of Christmas is starting at an excessively early time. In any craft store, October’s Halloween decorations are immediately followed by gigantic Christmas trees in front of the store, and in Starbucks or Dunkin’, you are already drinking out of their holiday cups in the beginning of November.

People can claim I am being unreasonable or exaggerating—who cares that retailers are selling holiday items so soon? But to them, I must ask: Where are the Thanksgiving decorations? Where are the Turkey Day coffee cups?

Even though my opinion cannot sway society to change the process of preparing for the holiday seasons, I can change what I do. Every year when October, November and December roll around, I have a list of traditions I follow to maximize all the holidays during these months.

Once Halloween is over, my family and I prepare for Thanksgiving, not Christmas. The perfect Thanksgiving grocery list starts and the kitchen begins to ll up with all the stuffing, mashed potatoes, turkey, ham and pies.

One tradition that has always been in my family is watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. For the past 17 years, my parents and I have sat in front of the TV for numerous hours and watched all the oats and performers walk down the streets of New York. When Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus are the last people in the parade, that is when I believe the Christmas spirit begins.

This tradition has always been a part of my life and allows me to cherish Thanksgiving and how much it means to me because I celebrate it with family. I do not want to forget about the memories made nor the holiday it- self, but as retailers begin to advertise for Christmas, the festivities around Thanksgiving feel forgotten to most… but not to me.