Finals are almost over for most, and the time of joyous Christmas festivities and holiday galore has already begun. It’s mid-December, and the urge to start binge-watching dozens of Christmas movies on the Hallmark channel and sing Christmas carols silently in the shower (yes, it is possible) is becoming stronger with each passing day. Of course, one may compare the merriment of this event to previous occasions, such as Thanksgiving or Halloween. I, personally, am a fan of Christmas, for a variety of personal and public reasons, but I’ll stick to six here for purposes of brevity. I always prefer the overall holiday vibe, peppermint candy canes, snowmen sculptures, stocking stuffers, and jingle bell-ness of the season than the scary spookiness of Halloween.

Read on for six reasons from the Odyssey at UC Berkeley for why the day of the birth of Jesus Christ is better than All Hallows’ Day of remembering the dead - at least in my personal perspective!

1. No Eeerie Stuff

This may come as a major confession to some, but I’m ready to take the leap here: I dislike horror or any genre/aspect that has anything remotely to do with horror. The fear and fright of horror make me stop sleeping for days - even weeks - on end, and I’m not ready to give up on any more beauty-sleep than I already have in my college career. I’m just not part of the “I love horror” party, which is why I wimp out of any occasion that involves blood, gore, or even creepy music. The first horror movie I ever watched was The Headless Horseman, and the simplicity of horror within this movie gave me insomnia for at least six nights. The second horror movie I ever accidentally watched was The Haunted House, which spooked me out for over a week - the dark circles did not suit me, to say the least. The point is, I regretted watching both movies, as well as the trailer for the Orphan movie. It scares me, and I’d rather be declared a cheesy “scaredy cat” than a frightened-to-the-point-of-death college sophomore willing to trail through horror movies and Halloween-themed elements without batting an eye. Christmas, however, welcomes my heart from all ends. The entire atmosphere and social milieu of the situation invite me in, from the lights to the dreadful eggnog to the music. There is absolutely no sinister stuff involved, as in Halloween, and Christmas actually automatically puts a smile on my lips - easily and effectively. (Disclaimer: And no, I am most certainly notone of the 53 people who've watched A Christmas Prince every day for the past 18 days on Netflix; that's not my style or taste).

2. The Holiday Music

The Christmas-themed songs irk many, but they definitely don’t vex me; the holiday music is so addictive to my eardrums, that you could often catch me favoriting it in my Spotify playlist. While this may horrify some, I’ll admit that I absolutely love listening to such cliched songs as Mariah Carey's All I Want For Christmas Is You, Justin Bieber's Mistletoe, especially his version of Santa Claus Is Coming To Town. Bing Crosby’s Walking in a Winter Wonderlanddefinitely tops the charts for my musical tastes every Christmas season as well. During Christmas, the music that gets played in shopping malls, events, and almost every commercial of the Hallmark channel, amuses me and puts me in the best possible mood. It also helped me focus a little during the hectic craze of finals week. However, for Halloween, I barely have a few songs I remember or even like to point out to the average person; Michael Jackson’s Thriller comes to mind, but that’s about it. It may be because I live in a cave - especially during Halloween - but the musical types and rhythms that generally characterize Halloween simply don’t appeal to my non-eclectic tastes. I don’t exactly prefer Christmas carols over Halloween jams, but generally speaking, I wouldn’t mind the former over the latter if I were confined to a musical marathon between the two. Of course, I also recognize how many students adored Season 2 of Stranger Things on Netflix during Halloween, but Christmas, I argue, could be just as adorable.

3. It’s After Finals, Not Before

Perhaps the most important reason out of these six is the fact that Christmas is usually never plagued with the academic stress/workload that generally occurs during Halloween. Halloween marks the end of October and the beginning of November, meaning that assignments are still being assigned and midterm season may just be ending - or still ongoing. Either way, Halloween simply doesn’t carry the same positivity and academic relief as Christmas does, when final exams, end-of-semester projects/papers/research/problem sets, and club memberships are all over. My mind is so much freer during Christmas than it is during Halloween and of course, this is an inherent fact; no development could ever change how these two timelines have been established or characterized. It’s simply the way things are, and it’s simply a reason why I will always prefer the leisurely holiday thrills of Christmas over the school-still-in-session vibes of Halloween: I’m not left worrying about work and studying when the Christmas carols are being sung, and that’s a huge game-changer for me in the debate of Christmas vs. Halloween.

4. It’s near New Year

Another reason that is similar to Reason 3 above is that Christmas is irrevocably closer to the New Year than Halloween will ever be, meaning that Christmas is automatically a celebration of not one but two separate occasions situated closely together in time, while Halloween is simply a one day annual event that quickly diminishes within the span of those twenty-four hours. Christmas, the holiday season, and the entire New Year theme all come together to one exciting amalgamation in December, which amplifies the general excitement, engagement and happiness of the time to unprecedented levels. It simply seems that Christmas and its cheerful merriment last much longer than Halloween and its pumpkin-patch elements ever will. Having a new year to celebrate right after the wonderful delights of Christmas brings a whole new level of prosperity on its own (even if those New Year resolutions never get fulfilled in their existence).

5. Gingerbread Houses Trump the Candy Corn

Here comes the ultimate food debate: who do our mighty tastebuds prefer best? In my opinion, multicolored candy canes and colorful, delicious gingerbread houses trump all! They trump the candy corn and endless chocolates for Halloween. They trump the sweets that are often exclusively targeted at children during Halloween (as opposed to the more mature target audience that universally accepts all people of all ages during Christmas time). Also, I may be heavily biased here: the Gingerbread houses are simply too cute and adorable to ignore; whenever I see a gingerbread man, or cookies, or anything flavored with gingerbread, I melt instantly. The candy corn has never appealed to me as much as the gingerbread houses, kits, decor, and cream has: the entire idea of building an edible house simply entices all my five senses (even the sixth sense, if you believe in intuition). While I hopelessly love the sweets of Halloween as a faithful chocoholic, the variety of scrumptious holiday cookies - some snowman-shaped - and lustrous shades of gingerbread houses make my mouth water more than the delicacies of Halloween. I may not be a fan of the eggnog of Christmas, but I definitely prefer the idea of building gingerbread houses more so than constructing and redefining the architecture of pumpkins. Carving pumpkins will never be nearly as exciting for me as making, decorating, and consuming gingerbread houses will. Oh, and the craze I embody for gingerbread men and cookies may or may not stem from the Shrek movie, as seen in this entertaining clip.

6. The Tree and Decorations

If you’ve seen the hilarious movie, Why Him?, you’ll know that Americans give it their all when it comes to selecting the best and brightest Christmas trees. From the car commercials to the holiday shopping ads to the Christmas tree twinkle lights/actual tree advertisements inside Walmart, Christmas screams high spirits and fun (as well as business profit) nearly everywhere. The gaiety and liveliness of the entire season trumps the relative ‘slowness’ of Halloween, and that may partially be because of the timing. The primary point to take-away is, the Christmas tree, the decorations - including the glowing star at the top - as well as the Santa Claus mythical stories told ubiquitously to children, all make the occasion so much more whimsical than it would have actually been. It is this same sense of ethereality that appeals to me in Christmas, and since this exuberance lacks during Halloween, I prefer the twinkly lights and Christmas stockings/stuffers/hot chocolate to the ghostly T.P-ed houses of Halloween. The decorations vary in color, since the scope for diversity of ornaments is much more flexible in Christmas than it is during the pumpkin/scarecrow-laden themes of Halloween. All in all, the Christmas tree, the Santa Claus events, the red and golden (among other colors) decor, the culture of gift-giving, the statues, the commemorative figures, the bokeh lighting, the exceptionally heightened economic activity (which is shared by Halloween as well and begins as early as early December) and the reindeer-themed cards of Christmas all make me love Christmas far more than Halloween. Joyeux Noel it is then!