Joanna Gaines has become synonymous with farmhouse chic and has created quite the empire alongside husband Chip. Even though she’s the epitome of poise, she’s a huge proponent of keeping it real — which is usually met with appreciation and applause but can also ruffle feathers.
In June 2019, before releasing the second volume of the “Magnolia Table” cookbook, she shared a series of photos highlighting her son and his stellar behavior on set.
“After months of developing and finalizing recipes, we are excited to start shooting Volume Two of our cookbook!” she wrote. “Gonna have to talk with this little one’s agent about his on-set behavior …”
The photos all show a squirmy little kiddo who is definitely not interested in taking photos (what kid is?).
Now 3, Crew still appears in Gaines’ social media posts from time to time, and also helps out a little more in the kitchen.
She recently shared a clip of Crew “helping” on a new episode of “Magnolia Table,” dumping the cups of flour Gaines handed him into a bowl and giving the mix a half-hearted stir.
Throughout the clip, the 3-year-old was clearly more fascinated with the eggs than anything else, but Gaines worked to redirect him until she sent him off on an important errand instead: taking a soda to Dad.
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It’s Gaines’ most recent share featuring Crew, though, that has some fans vehemently disagreeing with her position — in the most friendly of ways possible.
“It was 54 degrees today so…” she posted on Instagram, with a photo of her and Crew decorating a lit Christmas tree and the hashtag #CrewsTree.
Many took the post as a sign that they, too, had permission to set up their tree early.
“Mama said that it was okay, mama said that it was quite alright,” one person wrote.
However, plenty of commenters were not happy with the bucking of “tradition” (or the fact that they were standing on barstools in seeming disregard for their safety) and voiced their disapproval.
“I mean it’ll be naked and a fire hazard way before Christmas unless it’s fake. And it does kind of erase Thanksgiving, literally the time to give thanks. And now that Christmas is three months long it’s lost a bit of it’s magic,” one critic posted.
The next day, Gaines followed up with another post reiterating her decision to let the holidays merge.
“Woke up inspired to make miniature Fall wreaths and put up a Christmas tree,” she wrote. “Tis the Season, y’all.”
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Many were distressed by her redoubled efforts to let Christmas creep into the time period that is Thanksgiving’s by right. She shared a photo that showed she had set up and decorated another tree, drawing out even more negative comments, both feigned and sincere.
“Um, Thanksgiving first, then you folks can ramp up for Christmas,” Mary Gibson wrote. “Stay in your own lane premature Christmas people!”
“Not till Dec. 1st y’all! Lol,” Catherine McRae added.
“I want to put up my tree so badly this year, but we have a rule not to do Christmas anything until after Thanksgiving,” Michelle Froeber commented. “Then we do something every day during Advent. It’s a wonderful tradition, but oooh! It’s hard to wait.”
What is your position: Start decorating early for the most wonderful time of the year, or wait out of respect and fully celebrate Thanksgiving first?
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
