My husband is a major believer in no Christmas decorating until after Thanksgiving. The older he gets, the harder the line he seems to take with this belief. 

I am the total opposite. The earlier I can get my Christmas decorations out, the better! I have tried for years to convince him otherwise, but I have failed.

He generally comments on the holiday decor when it appears at the grocery store the day after Halloween. He gives me “the look” when he finds me listening to my Christmas channel in early November. And I avoid at all costs taking him into a mega craft shop in a nearby town until at least Nov. 24 to avoid calling him Ebeneezer Scrooge. 

However, there is always hope for change.

This year, my husband texted me a couple of weeks prior to Thanksgiving an image of two Christmas chickens he had come across at our local farm store. Two six-foot tall metal Christmas roosters to be more precise. Two large red and green roosters adorned with holiday scarves, stocking caps and poinsettias.

The message attached to the image: “You can put up the tree if I can get a six-foot Christmas rooster.”

“DEAL!!!” I replied, “Will the rooster go on the roof???”

The rooster did not go on the roof. In fact, the six-foot metal Christmas rooster was not purchased. 

However, by seeing those Christmas roosters, pre-Thanksgiving Christmas cheer was clearly planted within my husband’s heart that day as he ended up bringing home a three-foot tall Christmas mouse and placed where everyone could see it in the farmyard.

When the kids got home from school that day my daughter, not quite believing what she was seeing, declared, “Time to get out the Christmas decorations!” And we did.

Now that our family has celebrated Thanksgiving, we’ve entered the time of year where, in years past, it’d be acceptable to bring up the Christmas decor from the basement and begin decorating our farmhouse.

However, since the tree is already up, the house is decorated, and our new Christmas mouse shines brightly in the night, I can’t help but chuckle when I think of how a giant metal rooster brought about early holiday cheer for my husband this year.

I also chuckle as I glance over at our new reminder of this year’s early Christmas conversion – a mini-metal Christmas rooster standing beside our tree that was purchased by my husband in the wee morning hours of Black Friday.

Whether it’s a cherished song, a special ornament, a beloved recipe or a metal rooster, may you embrace reminders of Christmas cheer this holiday season.

“Insight” is a weekly column published by Kansas Farm Bureau, the state’s largest farm organization whose mission is to strengthen agriculture and the lives of Kansans through advocacy, education and service. Kim Baldwin is a McPherson County farmer and rancher.