What Makes You Think Christmas Is Over??? It's Only Just BEGUN!

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Somehow things in the last few decades, at least, have gotten muddled about Christmas. It may have something to do with the businesses which begin advertising Christmas in AUGUST (grrr!), or it may simply be that modern folks have separated Christmas from its faith origins. Or both. Or perhaps there are other reasons, but the point is, I'm puzzled at why, exactly, people have started thinking Christmas season begins the day after Thanksgiving, & ends at midnight on December 25th! That's not the Christmas season, people! That's more Advent! In fact, a lot of folks so confuse the 2 seasons they sing Christmas carols in Advent season & the other way about! Now, don't mistake me; I love the idea of keeping the spirit all year round, but I also delight in what used to be called "The 12 Days of Christmas!" Some people just think of that phrase as a puzzlingly long song, & maybe even annoying. In another thread, perhaps, I'll detail from where that song comes, & what it really means, but for now, I'll stick to the facts about the dates of Christmas, & why so many are getting them wrong. TWELVE DAYS. They begin on Christmas Eve, & end on Epiphany, "the first public showing of Christ." THAT by the way is the right time to sing the "We Three Kings of Orient Are," as they didn't come 'til some time after the birth of the little King. But back to the dates. I first noticed the mix-up about the end of Christmas when I noticed that on the second day of Christmas, I saw Christmas trees tossed in dumpsters & lying at curbs everywhere! I was stunned! Why would people throw out their trees so soon? As a little kid, I bonded with the trees. I would hate to see them thrown out, & would sometimes imagine they could come back inside. But of course, since they got no more water, they'd turn brown & the needles would fall off. Inevitably a few strands of icicles would remain, too tangled into the branches to remove for the next year, so finally I was left with the scratchy, bare-limbed corpse, glittering on occasion from a twinkle of icicle. It seemed sad, to me. I only lost that sense of sadness when I learned that birds used the trees to build nests, & other wild animals would house in them sometimes. But now, I'm more disturbed by the lack of knowledge about when Christmas arrives & leaves, because it speaks volumes about the ignorance prevalent today about the famous "Reason for the season" than about anything else. The Church has not been doing its job! Why is there so much ignorance? Did you know when Christmas season took place before reading this thread? What's your take on this? Happy third day of Christmas, everyone! Maggiepie MERRY CHRISTMAS! FELIZ NAVIDAD! BLESSED NATIVITY!