Sometimes it feels like people start celebrating Christmas earlier and earlier each year. The Goodwill down Main Street had Christmas trees on display in the window as early as September! This brings up a question a lot of people have varying opinions on: When is it appropriate to start celebrating Christmas?
I believe this answer depends on how you define “celebrate.” I think that on an individual level, it is appropriate to start thinking about Christmas once Halloween is over, especially since Thanksgiving does not have much music associated with the holiday. I’ve started listening to my Christmas playlist in my headphones! In the privacy of your own home (or earbuds), I think that there isn’t really a “rule” on when you can start celebrating, though I personally tend to wait until after Halloween (since I LOVE Halloween).
I think corporate “celebration” is an entirely different story. Stores will begin playing Christmas music and displaying Christmas décor well before Halloween has occurred, which feels stifling and dismissive of the October holiday. I think that these stores should wait until mid-November to start such flagrant holiday displays in order to avoid offending people who do not want to start celebrating yet (or those who don’t celebrate Christmas at all), but I recognize this is probably unreasonable since the stores want to profit from selling as much holiday stuff as possible.
Growing up, we never put up our Christmas tree until after December 10th, which is my mom’s birthday. My guess is she didn’t like the competition. At a certain point a few years ago, however, she changed her mind on the issue and now excitedly gets out the Christmas bins from the garage right around Thanksgiving.
In the end, I guess it doesn’t really matter how early you start celebrating– as long as it makes you happy and doesn’t disrupt anyone around you!
Ren Monin
Staff Reporter
