Right now I have pumpkins adorning my porch, Christmas lights strung along my roofline, and a spooky black Halloween wreath hung on my front door. It’s giving off a bit of a conflicted vibe. A celebration of the inevitability of death, the miracle of the nativity and the ubiquity of gourds all at once.
I like to think of myself as someone who stays on top of things. But it is impossible for me to keep up with the swift transition between holiday seasons.
I’m on record as someone who goes hard on Halloween. And so does my community. By the time actual All Hallows’ Eve rolls around, we’ve been celebrating the holiday for two weeks straight. So I’m pretty tired after.
And yet. The Christmas season insists on making its loud entry at the crack of dawn on Nov. 1. Or at least it did this year, when I woke up to 1 million promotional holiday emails from every company from which I’ve ever purchased anything.
Skimming those emails filled me with existential dread. How could we be doing this so soon? I don’t want gift guides yet. I don’t want to enter code SANTASLAYS for 5% off some socks. I don’t want eggnog in my fridge in November. I want to wait until the appropriate time, like someone living in a proper society.
We just need a little bit of a break. A chance to clean up the jack-o’-lanterns before busting out the tinsel. November should be the buffer month between Halloween and Christmas. A time to take a breath, relax a bit and focus on making turkey palatable. But instead, we’re getting Christmas creep seemingly earlier every year.
Thanksgiving deserves at least a minute in the sun. It’s the lowest stakes of all the major holidays and features a lot of pie. Why would we not take a beat to relish that?
But we don’t. Instead, we — and by “we,” I mean American society — insist on hitting shuffle on the jingle bell playlist at 12:01 a.m. on Nov. 1.
I know I sound like the Grinch, but I also know I’m not alone. A majority of people experience Christmas fatigue due to the constant Christmas advertisements, premature decorating and promotions.
It’s not that I’m anti-Christmas. It’s the opposite, actually. It’s my love for Christmas that makes me want to save the celebration of it for the appropriate time frame, lest I get so burned out from all the holiday cheer that I throw out my tree on Dec. 23. The holiday season is always a mad sprint through Christmas parties, school programs, holiday recitals and all other festivities. If we start that sprint earlier and earlier, we’re not going to make it to the finish line.
I believe, strongly, that we need to safeguard the parameters around the Christmas season, which, in my opinion, begins the weekend after Thanksgiving. That’s when the tree goes up, the lights turn on, and the jingle bell playlist is welcome in the home.
If we don’t safeguard those parameters, where does it stop? Will we be forced to hear “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire” right after the Fourth of July? Will we be seeing nutcrackers in Easter baskets? Will Punxsutawney Phil predict an eternal winter?
Not to self-aggrandize, but we need people like me who are willing to stand up in the middle of November and declare “No. This is too soon. Respect the turkey.” Otherwise, society may collapse into year-round holiday cheer, and there’s no coming back from that.