People are already putting up their Christmas decorations. Stores are already selling Christmas stuff. There’s a Santa in the mall already and a tv network has already broadcast “The Grinch”. And…the radio stations, at least two of them, have gone into playing Christmas songs as often as possible.

Look, I’m as much of a Christmas fan as you’d think I would be. Christmas is big with me. I really have difficulty being around people who plan to rag on Christmas the entire time. But can’t we please, please wait until after Thanksgiving to start it? Why are we already starting a new holiday when we haven’t even finished the one we’re supposed to be about to have? I understand why stores have to put the stuff out, it’s because people need time to buy their decorations-this is especially true of craft supply stores, but that doesn’t give everyone else permission to actually start the holiday.

Can’t we ease into this? Why can’t you play a couple of Christmas songs every few days, instead of starting right up with the twenty four seven Christmas carols?

“Secular” Christmas in the US is traditionally not supposed to start until the day after Thanksgiving (and the religious calendar puts it at somewhere near the same time). That’s why the Macy’s parade always *ends* with the big Santa float, it’s symbolic of the transition from one season to the next.

Religiously, and traditionally in Europe (and heavily Christian countries that aren’t the US), Christmas has four weeks of Advent (religious preparation for Christmas) and twelve days of the actual holiday. Those four weeks are technically not Christmas. That’s the time you’re supposed to use to get the decorations out, plan the menu, find a tree, start practicing for any local Christmas productions.

Christmas doesn’t end on December 26th, Christmas starts on Christmas Eve and goes til January 6th, or “Twelfth Night”.

But because people start so early, they’re heartily sick of the whole thing by Christmas Day. The tree gets tossed out for the garbage truck because it’s dying-since they bought it too early and they have to go back to work and/or school on January 2nd (I mean, if it falls on a weekday). They feel let down and depressed because it’s like they’ve spent two months on pins and needles, rushing around getting ready for this big, big holiday that lasted…three days at most and that’s it. The US does not even do Boxing Day (even when more people in this country had servants they didn’t really feel an obligation to share the bounty with them. This is America! There’s no ugly class system holding you down-if you can’t afford a Christmas celebration it’s your own fault, I gave you half of Christmas morning off because the government made me, what more do you want?”). They've begun to hate the music halfway through December. They've even already put the Wisemen in the manger.

Why do they start so early? It’s partly due to our over the top capitalist culture. If something can be commercialized, we will commercialize it. It is quite unhealthy but we get trained up to believe that buying stuff is how we’re supposed to show our love and or devotion to a person, cause or entity. We have also been a depressed, and insecure and frightened nation for the last eight years, looking for something to focus on that will make us feel better and Christmas is a great time for people who need to pretend that the world is other than what it is. We’ve also got this problem of a very schizophrenic view of Christmas in general and the way to solve that, people seem to think, is to just sell as much stuff as possible.

The less Christmas is working for us, the more obsessed we become with it.

Plus, let's be honest. No matter how early you start Christmas preparations, you're never going to be ready in time. It's one of those things. That's why even with two months warning the stores are still full of frantic people buying presents on Christmas Eve.