Why are people decorating for the holidays so early?
If it seems like Christmas trees are popping up earlier and earlier, that's because they are.
According to the Minnesota Christmas Tree Association, 50% of their farms open before Thanksgiving, which used to be unheard of.
At one Stillwater shop, the holiday cheer isn't up for discussion.
"It's Christmas all year round here," said Jill Heymer, who helps run Käthe Wohlfahrt of America, a German company whose handmade goods are on sale all year.
She says the early trend is good for business.
"It's been, it's been good for business, and surprisingly, largely, scales are trending up just a little bit year over year," she said.
According to a survey by YouGov, 30% of people asked are in full Christmas mode before Dec. 1 and around 60% of adults asked say people start celebrating earlier than when they were kids.
Amy Morin is a therapist who researched the trend.
"There is research too that decorating can help us. And so when you start to see your neighbors decorating, people talking about the holidays, it kind of makes us feel like we're all in something together," Morin said.
And that's why she says this trend got a big boost 5 years ago.
"So during the pandemic, having been isolated on our team, but it felt really good to suddenly be like but we're in this together. That's the sort of thing we want to do is banding together with our communities overall shows it reduces that feeling of collective dread, of collective anxiety that you haven't during tough times," she said.
Morin says that decorating early can help you become more social.
"Which brings us back to this idea that the more social you are, the happy you are. So there's no reason that you shouldn't decorate," she said.
Morin added that the ambient lights can also help with seasonal affective disorder, and lift spirits during the increasingly dark days.