Some may claim that I am a Grinch, or a Scrooge, for complaining about people celebrating Christmas. However, it is my solemn belief that both Halloween and Thanksgiving deserve recognition when it is their time in the holiday season. This early celebration of Christmas is largely fueled by corporations, especially department stores, for whom Christmas is a hugely profitable time. With this attitude behind the lengthening of the Christmas season, it is clear that our materialistic culture has only a shallow appreciation of the holidays, and that the Christmas saturation will eventually detract from the overall experience.

Many stores, especially places like Walmart, Target and even Costco have been selling Christmas decorations since October. This is over-the-top, but understandable, as many people like to get decorations early so that they do not have to brave the stores later. However, when stores put up their own decorations, or set up sections of their stores that focus on both decorations and gifts, they only commercialize the holiday and frustrate customers. I have gone to Walmart before Halloween and seen a Halloween section and a Christmas section adjacent to each other, and this physical overcrowding of holidays detracts from both of them.

People celebrate this, and they view the merging of the holidays as a good thing, simply a really big party; however, the holidays span three months. This length of time of celebration burns people out. Many people struggle with eating healthy during the holidays, and dragging the festivities out over three months does not help them. The Thanksgiving season typically centers around a single day of food with friends and family. Christmas has many more parties and with much less healthy food, so when it is celebrated before Thanksgiving, people are simply less capable of staying healthy.

Along with the food comes money spent. While corporations make the most money during the Christmas season, consumers spend the most as well. By extending the amount of time spent celebrating, society is also extending the amount of money spent. Christmas is expensive, with the gift-giving and parties, but also by making the Christmas season last two to three months, people are spending much more than they should have to. This is due in part to the higher prices on everything that is sold during the holidays. Because businesses know that people need to buy things to gift to others, they raise the price on almost everything. If this practice stretches into November and October, people’s wallets will be very unhappy.

The final reason that Christmas needs to stay in its lane is the most obvious: the music. Christmas music is fun and upbeat, but there are only a few truly quality Christmas songs, and everybody in the music industry has their own take on these dozen or so songs. I do not care if Justin Bieber or Taylor Swift sings “Last Christmas,” it is still the same song, and it is overplayed to the extreme. I can appreciate trying to get the most out of the season by listening to the music for as long as possible, but I personally have noticed that after about two or three weeks of listening, the appeal of the music is gone.

Some may claim that any true fan of Christmas would appreciate the early music, and we can put up with the extra money spent and food consumed, but I say that we should not have to. By living in the future, even just a month into the future, we as a society lose sight of the implications of the present. Thanksgiving is a holiday that many enjoy, but it is becoming more and more overlooked. New music gets ignored when people flock to decades-old Christmas tunes that they hear every year. And bank accounts are drained with the constant pressure from commercials and commercial businesses. Therefore, I propose that we, the people of Aledo, make a conscious effort to wait until after Thanksgiving to celebrate Christmas. Black Friday ought to be the beginning of the Christmas, not November 1.