Never too soon for the most wonderful time of the year
by Katie White
It wasn’t long ago that I was scrounging through the back aisles of Target for a Halloween costume when I noticed that Christmas cheer had already begun to spread through everyone’s favorite store, one sparkly garland-covered, rainbow-lit shelf at a time. While people around me rolled their eyes at what they saw as a season-inappropriate display, I felt my heart grow three sizes.
There’s no denying that Christmas comes earlier and earlier every year. Whether it’s stores like Target breaking out their holiday merchandise in late October, or cyber Monday deals that are advertised weeks ahead of time, America is increasingly experiencing what some merchandisers call “Christmas creep.”
Plenty people (I call them “pre-Christmas Scrooges”) bemoan the fact that it’s “not yet time” for the season of giving to be upon us. Call it over-hype; call it the evils of commercialism; whatever the reason behind the early winter celebration, I think that Christmas in November is good for the spirit.
I won’t even try to argue in favor of consumerism—I’m there with everyone who thinks that shopping Black Friday sales on Thanksgiving is a little much. But as for Christmas music hitting the radios, Macy’s decking the halls, and holiday-themed drinks making an appearance before the winter solstice—I say, “Let there be Christmas!”
I have to admit, I haven’t always felt this way about the season; my love for all things red and green began somewhat late in life. As much as I looked forward to the holiday as a child, it wasn’t until I went away to college that I began to treasure Christmas for what it truly was—an entire season and mindset emblematic of coming home.
It’s no mistake that so many classic Christmas songs center on the nostalgia of sitting around a fire, traveling long distances to come home, and spending time with family on cold winter nights. These activities are what many people look forward to during the holidays, and it’s what I love more than anything too.
I’m thankful that every fall I get to be surrounded by reminders of all these wonderful feelings and memories, even when I’m deep in the throes of finals week. I’m glad that there are more and more reminders, albeit amidst a lot of annoying commercials, that there is so much joy in the world and it’s coming soon.
The way I see it, Christmas always comes at just the right time.
True appreciators of the holiday know that it’s not the holiday drinks or Christmas sales that we’re truly excited about when we begin to anticipate the Christmas season, but the feelings we associate these traditions with.
Don’t get me wrong—I’ll still eat peppermint flavored everything and turn up to “All I Want for Christmas is You” every day from now until New Year’s—but what I’m really celebrating when I break out the early Christmas cheer is the warmth and the joy that the time of year calls to mind. How can it ever be the wrong time for that?
Good things come to those who wait
by Maria Spirk
Do you know why we all skip the song “Heathens” by twenty-one pilots on Spotify? Don’t lie, we all loved it when it was first released. The song was cool, unique, and perfect for car sing-a-longs that we all love so much. But then radio stations decided that we loved it so much that we should hear it all the time. The song became excessive and it stopped evoking the same feelings of appreciation or excitement that we used to get when we heard it.
I don’t want this to happen to Christmas.
To give some context to the situation, I come from Bethlehem, Pa., also known as the Christmas City. When the Moravians settled along the Lehigh River on Christmas Eve in 1741 they named our little town “Bethlehem” in honor of the holiday. Since then there has been a special place in every Bethlehem resident’s heart—including my own—for the Christmas season and all of the sweet, unique ways we celebrate it. In sum, the residents of Bethlehem, myself included, all have a great deal of experience with Christmas.
The thing I respect most about Bethlehem is that the city always holds the Christmas tree celebration after Thanksgiving, thus recognizing the appropriate time for the holiday. Throughout the year we celebrate our German and Celtic ties, and host the country’s largest free music festival in the country in the summer. We do not rely on any kind of exploitation for our own gain all year round—and certainly not on the sacred holiday of Christmas.
Yet this perspective is not shared by everyone. As many of us know too well, people want “their Christmas” and they want it now. They play their Christmas music on Nov. 1, host performances of The Nutcracker during 50 degree fall days, and buy Christmas gifts well before Black Friday. By stretching out the season, they are removing a degree of what truly makes the holiday unique.
The holiday season universally stands for kinship, kindness, joyful spirits, and friendship. And these are qualities that we celebrate all year round. However, during the end of December, we take time to recall special family holiday traditions, reach out to friends with cards and gifts, and a little something extra. I, for example, cannot wait until all of my siblings flock back from college to sit in my family’s living room and watch the 1951 version of “A Christmas Carol,” fulfilling an annual Spirk family tradition.
If we play these sentiments over and over, like a once beloved radio hit, do we gorge ourselves? By Dec. 24, are we sick of singing “Silent Night”? Do we become nauseated at the sight of anything peppermint flavored because we’ve been knocking it back since Oct. 28? Will “A Christmas Carol” mean the same to me when we watch it on Christmas Eve if I just watched it over Thanksgiving break? I don’t think so.
Overindulgence removes the special aura surrounding the holiday itself because we become used to having it all the time and it becomes annoying; it becomes overplayed.
Many people will then respond that they do not care—these ideals should be celebrated all year round. The word “special” is literally defined as “different from what is usual.” If Christmas becomes usual through an extension of its season, does it lose the “special”? Are we sure we want our beloved holiday to lose its connotation and become just like any other time of the year?
I certainly do not.
