It’s early. All the snowmen, tiny bubble-eyed elves, and glittery tinsel gets to your head before Halloween is even over.

I would know. I work in retail and half of our loading bay is piled to the ceiling with six-foot Santa caricatures and displays of gourmet candy people buy for their grandparents. None of our abundant plastic trees will even sell until 2 a.m. the week before the big day, when a horde of drunk college kids wander in and think it’s a good idea to decorate at that very moment. Corporate doesn’t care. Christmas is slowly replacing Halloween before it’s even over.

You don’t need to succumb to the neon white fake snow in a can because your relatives tell you that you’re not festive enough. You can still be a total badass and celebrate Christmas without compromising either one.

Whatever your style of badass, know that it’s compatible with Christmas in some way. Spray paint your tree. Get ornaments that are everything but sparkly white, red, and green bulbs. Tattoo your Santa with Sharpie. Make fried chicken and hash brown casserole instead of honey ham and pecan pie.

Seriously, you absolutely do not have to compromise yourself to do festive things with people who wear ugly tree sweaters unironically. And don’t let places like my work convince you that you need furry red stockings with embroidered initials on it to make Christmas special.

Whenever you go grocery shopping and find yourself leering at the Christmas aisle from behind a floor display of Wheat Thins, wondering if you should get a Christmas tree just because it’s tradition, stop right there! You don’t need the pressures of commercialized Christmas breaking your stride.

The Halloween decorations that are slowly being replaced are better anyway.