Picture it: it’s November 1. As we all recover from the shenanigans from the previous night that was Halloween, and we hop in the car to go to work, class, or head back from last night’s activities, the opening notes to Mariah Carey’s Christmas hit song “All I Want For Christmas Is You” come on. Your reaction is one of the following:
- “AWWWW YEAH!!! IT’S CHRISTMAS TIME!!!!”
- “OH HELL NO! IT ISN’T EVEN THANKSGIVING YET! THIS IS NOT OK!”
- “*insert favorite radio station here* started playing Christmas music already?”
Yes, it is November. And with that, many people will start getting their Christmas decorations out in the coming weeks, unless you’re the city of Pittsburgh, in which case your Christmas decorations have already been out since the last week of October. Seriously, that photo was taken on October 26. To the people who believe November 1 is the start of the Christmas season, every day from here until December 25 will consist of Christmas music, decorations being strung in every corner of every place that is theirs, and planning out what movies on “25 Days of Christmas” they can’t miss. Then you have the group that believes Christmas doesn’t start until after Thanksgiving. The group that at the first sight of tinsel in November will cringe, and will threaten to throw your speakers out the window if they hear a single song featuring sleigh bells or talking about Santa.
To be fair, both groups have good points. The people who immediately start celebrating Christmas on November 1 are probably the people that look forward to Christmas all year, and to be fair, if they had to wait another day, they probably would explode and are eager to spread Christmas cheer as soon as they can. They look forward to the Christmas season all year, and to be fair, I don’t blame them. Many of my best memories of childhood have happened on or around Christmas. I’m writing this article listening to, you guessed it, the Ariana Grande Christmas album. They can’t wait to have that feeling back again. To them, “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” is more than just a song, it’s a fact, and the desire to extend the feeling of that time is perfectly fine.
However, there is a solid case to the people that think Christmas starts after Thanksgiving. There is a reason that the Thanksgiving Day Parade ends with Santa after all. The belief is that Santa bringing up the rear of the Thanksgiving Parade and ushering in the Christmas season is the sign of it being okay to blast the Christmas music. The other point of argument is that it takes away from Thanksgiving, and while yes Thanksgiving is overshadowed by Christmas, in comparison, Thanksgiving is supposed to be more of a low-key holiday than Christmas. Just a day spent with the whole family having a huge dinner and maybe some other traditions your family may have. Christmas is a much larger celebration for most families in comparison, and while many will agree that both holidays are important, many feel like that Thanksgiving needs to have it's time in the spotlight before we bust out the garland and trees.So what is your opinion on this, does the Christmas music need to wait until after Thanksgiving, or have you already started blasting the Christmas playlist? May this issue divide your news feed more than the 2016 Election.
