Don’t get me wrong, I’m no Grinch; I love Christmas. The glitter, the lights, the smell of pine and cinnamon and gingerbread, the snowy nights, and the hot cocoa are all so wonderful and make the holiday season the absolute best time of the year. And of course, I love singing along to Michael Buble’s Christmas albums on repeat. But seriously, I don’t want to hear Michael’s golden voice telling me it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas until it’s actually beginning to look like Christmas.
It’s simple: No Christmas music until after Thanksgiving. These days, the radio is blasting Christmas music the day after Halloween. You’re still bingeing on candy corn and leftover pumpkin everything while other people are singing about figgy pudding. It’s unacceptable. Yes, we all love the Christmas spirit, but overplaying these iconic songs on endless loops for two straight months can really beat them to death. If we listen to the songs on the radio starting in October, by the time Christmas Day rolls around, you’re just thinking: All I want for Christmas is for everyone to shut up.
Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year. Let’s not ruin it by butchering everyone’s favorite songs. We all know the feeling of having a song stuck in your head that you just can’t get out, and by the time you finally do, you never want to hear it again. If that happened to me with “Baby It’s Cold Outside”… my life would be meaningless.
And if you’re really that hung up about Christmas, if you really want winter connection in October, come up with a winter playlist full of songs all about those cold snowy months. I would suggest “White Winter Hymnal” by Fleet Foxes, and “Winter Song” by Ingrid Michaelson and Sara Bareilles, two songs I doubt anyone would mind hearing in the middle of October.
If that yet does not appease you, it is perfectly acceptable to make Christmas themed snacks. It is never a bad day to build a gingerbread house, and tree shaped cookies aren’t bad as long as there are no Christmas decorations up yet. If your neighbor still has rubber bats and ghost-themed string lights hanging, then yes, it is too early to put up the tree.
I know, I know, Christmas is supposed to be the most wonderful time of the year, and a lot of people think that all these rules just put a damper on the Christmas spirit. But truthfully, the Christmas spirit is special and magical and wonderful, and it indeed is something that needs to be shared. But that spirit is precious and it needs to be cherished and protected. It’s like your favorite and most expensive lipstick that’s by Yves Saint Laurent that you bought with your very own money from Sephora. It’s so precious, that you would only wear it when it’s a very special occasion and you can fully appreciate it. That’s how we need to treat Christmas Songs.
So, don’t worry, Thanksgiving is coming up this Thursday, and then Friday will be like a holiday in and of itself: Black Friday and It’s Finally Okay to Sing Christmas Carols Day.
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