It was September 3rd when I got in my friend’s car on a Wednesday morning only to hear “It’s Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas” blasting from the speakers.
I walked into Michaels on October 28th and saw gingerbread houses, fake Santas, and tiny Christmas trees filling the aisles. Halloween was in three days and not a single jack-o-lantern was in sight.
The moment November 1st came around, Christmas ads were everywhere on TV and people were putting lights on their houses and Christmas trees by their windows.
The entire Christmas season has become so materialistic that people can’t even wait until December 1st or at least a day or two after Thanksgiving to start preparing for Santa and his reindeer.
Fifty years ago, you would never see giant Santa Clauses on peoples’ lawns before Thanksgiving because the holidays weren’t nearly as commercialized.
Holidays used to be about traditions and family. It was never supposed to be about which store can get the most business before the actual Christmas season.
Society is constantly pushing Christmas to start earlier and earlier because everyone’s just so excited for all the songs, music, food, and overall joyous feeling. But starting the celebrations so early have taken away from all the things people love about Christmas because of how long it’s being celebrated.
December is special because Christmas time only happens once a year for 25 days. Those butterflies you feel in your stomach when you look at all the wrapped presents is a fleeting feeling that isn’t experienced every day.
But when people start celebrating Christmas in October, they’ve dedicated months to this special and fleeting holiday, which takes away from the uniqueness of it all.
You can’t feel butterflies when you’ve been watching Christmas movies for three months. You can’t experience the anticipation and excitement when you’ve listened to Christmas music for weeks.
The year is structured so everything has its appropriate time to be celebrated. When you celebrate Christmas during Halloween, it disrupts the balance and the intended timeline of the holidays.
October should be reserved for spooky season, then November is time to enjoy all the comforts and luxuries of autumn like comfy sweaters, hot chocolate, and big colorful leaf piles in the yard with a week set aside for Thanksgiving. Once the Thanksgiving week has passed, then you can grab all the dusty bins labeled Christmas decorations from the garage.
The diversity at the end of the year makes it so nothing is so constant that it becomes boring while at the same time, keeping things interesting and exciting.
Anyone who’s watched the Macys Thanksgiving Parade knows that Santa and his sleigh only show up at the end of the parade as the last float.
He lets Thanksgiving be in the spotlight and gives everyone a chance to celebrate, eat turkey, and be grateful for their families before saying goodbye to November and welcoming Christmas.
I believe the Christmas season should start as early as a few days after Thanksgiving and as late as December 1st.
Even the queen of Christmas, Mariah Carey herself, knows when “It’s time.”
