Mariah Carey unfrosted on November 1st with her annual announcement: Christmas is coming. Soon the streets will be filled with holiday jingles and for-you pages will be taken over by wish list ideas. However, this long-awaited season seemingly begins earlier every year, practically becoming its own two month season and making other dates like Thanksgiving become obsolete. So when is it appropriate to start getting into the Christmas spirit?
Many dates are proposed for when to start celebrating, however the two that stand out are November 1 and Black Friday, which is November 28 this year. The WMC community, via an Instagram poll, expressed conflicting views on this, with 36% believing the beginning of November is best and 35% sticking with Black Friday.
November 1 is particularly popular this year, with people reportedly turning on Christmas music right after Halloween and decorating their rooms for the upcoming season, despite still being almost two months away from the holiday.
Even people who believe Christmas should start later in the year struggle to stick to these values. Senior Anabelle Ortiz starts celebrating at the end of November, but she said “it’s been really hard for me this year because I’m just feeling Christmas cheer.” Christmas is already being celebrated in stores and coffee shops and with Long Valley’s first snowfall of the year being November 11, it really is difficult not to join in on the Christmas cheer.
Despite this, some people are sticking to their inner grinch until after Thanksgiving. The reason is simple. By starting the celebration early, Thanksgiving gets overlooked. Sophomore Olivia Heydorn was very confident in her belief that the holiday should commence on Black Friday. She said “Thanksgiving is a great holiday, and there’s no reason to skip it.”
It really is easy to get sucked into the joy between the Christmas advertising, the snow, the holiday drinks at Dunkin’ and Starbucks, but some people do believe there deserves to be more of an emphasis on Thanksgiving and this premature celebration gets in the way of that. So with that said, when is it all good to start celebrating?
There has been an overall consensus that decorating houses for the holidays should be put off until the end of November. Senior Hayden Wall, who springs into full Christmas mode on November 1 even admittedly said that “my mom doesn’t start to until after Thanksgiving” even though her room is fully decorated by then. This preserves the spirit of Thanksgiving and not giving Christmas full reign until Black Friday. However with all the Christmas spirit already unlocked, it may be reasonable to start listening to holiday music in preparation for this magical season.
