Everyone knows that playing Christmas music before October 31st is off-limits. But as soon as it was November 1st, my roommates and I started blasting Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas is You” on the speaker in our dorm room. In fact, Christmas music has quickly become my study music of choice. We basically ran to Starbucks and Dunkin’ to try their new holiday flavors as soon as they were released and started thinking about what Christmas decorations we wanted to purchase for our dorm room.
While my roommates and I might be just a little Christmas obsessed, I have many other friends that fall firmly in the category of waiting to celebrate the Christmas season until Thanksgiving is over. This debate has been increased by the phenomenon of the “Christmas Creep,” where large retail stores like Walmart and Target will stock up on and display Christmas decorations the moment Halloween is over… and sometimes even before! A substantial portion of people feel that celebrating Christmas early takes away from Thanksgiving, but I disagree.
Celebrating Christmas involves embracing a cheerful, nostalgic spirit associated with good memories from our childhood. There is a multitude of catchy Christmas songs, both traditional and modern, and entertaining Christmas movies to enjoy alone or in the company of family and friends. I’m partial to “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” and “Elf,” but I also love watching the cheesy Christmas rom-coms on Netflix, like “Holidate” and “The Christmas Prince.” As far as I know, there aren’t a ton of songs or movies for Thanksgiving, except for Adam Sandler’s comedic “The Thanksgiving Song” (which you should definitely give a listen to if you haven’t before).
In addition, the benefits of celebrating Christmas early are actually supported by science! According to a GMA article, studies show that decorating for Christmas takes us back to some of the best times in our lives and cherished memories with our loved ones. In addition, “altruism increases in the month of December and as people start to give more and donate more, it makes them happy.” Finally, “at least one study has also shown that decorating the outside of your home for Christmas can make you appear more welcoming and sociable.”
I am not saying that Thanksgiving isn’t a great holiday. Thanksgiving provides people with an opportunity to practice gratitude and, in many cases, to take a trip back to their hometowns, which is something I’m really looking forward to as a freshman in college. The holiday brings people from many geographic areas together to spend time with their family and friends and to enjoy some really tasty food — I absolutely love mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce.
In my opinion, however, Thanksgiving is more of a one-day holiday than an entire “season” on its own. Celebrating Christmas early is not meant to overshadow all the great things about Thanksgiving; rather, it is to make the Christmas season just a little bit longer. I don’t think there’s any reason to limit the Christmas celebration and the joyful spirit that comes along with it to only the period of time after Thanksgiving.
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