Christmas is possibly the most celebrated holiday in America, but when is it acceptable for the celebrations to start? 

Some people have already begun their festivities, causing some to be frustrated with those people and wish they would let Thanksgiving and Halloween happen first. To those who want Christmas to wait, it feels like these early Christmas celebrations start earlier and earlier every year, a phenomenon known as the “Christmas Creep.”

Everyone who likes Christmas should be able to understand the people who give in to the Christmas Creep.  The mixture of nostalgia and current enjoyment from Christmas causes people to try to extend the Christmas period as long as possible.

“Part of me does derive a certain frisson from those blinky lights on the periphery of the store,”  Donna Freedman, who wrote an article on the Christmas Creep last year, admits.  “Does that mean that dark marketing forces have trained me to think that way? Good grief, I hope not. I much prefer to think it’s because Christmas was quite wonderful when I was a kid.”  

Though there are plenty of people who believe Christmas should come early, individuals are hardly to blame.  Stores are already putting their Christmas decor out for sale in front of the Halloween things, even though Halloween is coming in less than a couple weeks, and Christmas still has to wait months. They do this because it maximizes profits.

According to Renuka Rayasam, author of a Christmas Creep article from October 2016, “Retailers have seen benefits of early ads as far back as the late 19th century. But the volume of early Christmas has vastly increased.” 

Companies make a large amount of money from Christmas sales, so they try to extend the Christmas period as much as possible. Additionally, they want to get  Christmas merchandise out earlier, so they can cater to early shoppers. The people that start shopping earlier than most are generally those that are most excited about Christmas, so they’re willing to spend a good deal of money. 

They realize that they are significantly too early, but they do it anyway so they can get ahead. In an interview with Emily DeVoe, a manager at At Home decor store said,  “We do put them out pretty early, but we want to get them out ahead of our competitors and give you an idea for how to decorate before the holiday hustle and bustle.”

The Christmas-y environment coming from these companies may be what is getting people into the spirit long before a reasonable time. Their use of advertisements to manipulate people into buying their Christmas-themed items has created a culture in which Christmas is the only important event at the end of the year. It overshadows holidays celebrated both at the same time as it and before it, such as Halloween, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa. 

The Christmas Creep has become much more extreme than in the past, because each corporation wants the most profit, and a large profit is given to the one that starts Christmas the fastest.  This increase is because each year, each business wants to be the first. At this rate, there are only have a few years until stores break out the Christmas things in March. 

Disclaimer: Articles designated as “Editorial” represent the views and opinions of the author, not the 2019-2020 Periscope staff, CHS/CASD administration, or the CHS student body.