Imagine going for a drive on a cold, snowy night, sipping peppermint hot chocolate and listening to holiday music, while looking at Christmas lights. Now imagine doing this every day from mid-October to late December.
As Halloween approached this year, several stores began selling Christmas decorations to prepare for the holiday season.
Nov. 18, the T.V. station ABC Family started their annual Countdown to 25 Days of Christmas, playing holiday shows and movies each night until Dec. 1 when the official 25 Days of Christmas began. This was essentially a countdown to the countdown to Christmas.
Most of the radio stations begin playing holiday music as early as November. These stations play the same songs every year, and repeat the same classic songs so many times that they become mundane and cease to create the holiday atmosphere that we enjoy.
For many, these reminders arrive too soon and irritate those who are not yet ready to get into the Christmas spirit.
Beginning to create the holiday atmosphere in mid-October makes the season less special in December. After weeks of hearing the same songs, looking at the same decorations, and watching the same movies, that special feeling of “It’s Christmas time!” has worn out before December even begins.
In addition, when stores sell Christmas decorations before Halloween, they force people to think about Christmas rather than the up-coming holidays, which means that Halloween and Thanksgiving are given much less attention as businesses rush to promote Christmas sales.
This early holiday atmosphere seeps into our minds and causes some families to display their Christmas lights before Thanksgiving, trading turkeys for pine trees.
All these events act as reminders for those who dislike celebrating Christmas before December, and the repetition of the same songs, movies, and decorations no longer creates the holiday atmosphere. While we understand that businesses are trying to promote sales to increase their business profit, the cost is the magic of the holidays.
Businesses need to stop promoting Christmas so soon and take time to appreciate the lesser holidays, before the holiday season become the season of Christmas.