As soon as Halloween ends, people start to think about Christmas. They decorate their homes, listen to Christmas music, and generally get into the Christmas spirit. In my opinion, it is too early to start the holiday season. Christmas has been starting earlier and earlier as the years go on, and this is mainly due to aggressive marketing and consumer pressure to buy gifts and decorate. In my opinion, Christmas should start the day after Thanksgiving because you can’t skip over fall and Thanksgiving, and two months is too long to have a single holiday.
If you start the holiday season at the beginning of November, you have already skipped a whole month of fall. This diminishes the other holidays, like Thanksgiving, that have their own themes and traditions. Thanksgiving has a fall theme, and you enjoy your meal with friends and family. Thanksgiving has a historical purpose, rooted in autumn. The Pilgrim settlers and Native Americans came together to celebrate the harvest. It was officially made a holiday by Abraham Lincoln, and it was intended as a time to promote gratitude. By skipping over an important holiday, you are also missing out on those themes of gratitude, family, and community, which should have their own dedicated time.
When you start Christmas too early, by the time you get to the end of December, you are already sick of it, and you can’t enjoy it as much. This reduces your overall enthusiasm for the holiday season. For example, if you listen to Christmas music from the beginning of November through the end of December, you will be annoyed by it by the end, especially since there aren’t that many holiday songs to begin with. Starting too early can make decorations and festive cheer feel repetitive and lose their special impact. Everyone loves the feeling when you realize it is Christmas and you get into the Christmas spirit, but eventually that feeling will wear off, and it prevents you from fully enjoying the holiday.
However, some people believe Christmas and other winter holidays should start early. Some of the main reasons for this are to have their holiday enjoyment last longer. When you start early, you do get to enjoy the holiday for much longer, which can be nice. An extended holiday season can allow you more time to connect with friends and family. Another reason is that some people feel that they should start after Halloween as a natural step, as a gap between fall and winter, so they want to mark the transition between the end of fall by starting winter, which is Christmas.
Barlow students were surveyed on this topic, and out of the 47 responses, 44.7 percent of students said Christmas should start the day after Thanksgiving, and 27.7 percent said it should start the first day of December. This shows that a majority of students who responded believe Christmas should begin later, rather than earlier.
In my opinion, Christmas starts too early, and it should start the day after Thanksgiving, so it doesn’t diminish fall holidays, and you won’t get sick of Christmas when you get to December 25th. On the other hand, some people like to celebrate early and lengthen their holiday season. No matter what side of the debate you are on, you can still enjoy your holiday season, even if it is longer or shorter.
