It's the countdown, not the date, that counts

Today, I happened to come across a ticker that showed 56 days until Easter. It inspired me to do a little further research, in which I discovered that there are 262 days till Halloween and 317 days till Christmas.

But, in my opinion, it's not the actual date of these holidays that matters the most. No, it's the countdown, the anticipation to the actual date that represents the real magic of these special days. Case in point, as you can see at the top of the blog, my countdown ticker shows how much time remains until Easter decorating begins, not until Easter day itself.

To be clear, I do not do this to any way denigrate or minimize the religious gravity of the holiday, or should I say Holy Day. I myself believe in Easter's profound historical and theological claim, and I will be attending multiple Lenten services. I only focus on the anticipatory countdown from the more innocuous, children-focused perspective.

As I wrote in a previous post, CFO Holidays has allotted me a maximum of two weeks to decorate a portion of her front yard for Easter. That means, I can begin on March 25 (PWIW Holidays is due March 28). For those two weeks, the "Magic of Easter" will descend upon CFO Holidays' local community, and the decorative climax will take place on Easter Eve, when the basket is placed under the tree and the luminaries are lit. Easter Sunday will be a day to just take it all in with family.

Looking ahead, the pattern for Halloween and Christmas will be the same. Once Easter is over, I will post a new countdown ticker, one that will count the number of days till September 30. This is the day I traditionally begin decorating CFO Holidays' front yard for Halloween in honor of my late Mother.

Then, after Halloween, I'll post a new countdown ticker for some time in December. I have not selected a specific date yet, as I have to negotiate with CFO Holidays. Poor thing's just barely getting adjusted to the whole idea of Easter decorations. In fact, she won't even allow us to mention the word "---ter" in her presence. She's a true holiday grinch....a benevolent holiday grinch, that is :)

Ironically, on Halloween Day and Christmas Day, I always feel a tinge of sadness. All the planning, all the organizing, all the working, and all the fun is over in just one day. Then, you have a whole year to wait. This is one of the main reasons I pushed CFO Holidays to allow me to decorate her cherry tree & surrounding area for Easter. It's just too long of a wait between Halloweens. A serious holiday decorator needs at least one intermediate step to satiate his/her insane passion. Plus, I wanted to start a new tradition in preparation for PWIW Holidays. He needs 3 holidays to really look forward to, not just 2.

I can't wait to explain the principle behind the countdown ticker to Toddler Holidays...