With the oncoming holiday season following Thanksgiving, some have already started to get into the holiday spirit. These festivities include putting up a tree, hanging lights, listening to holiday music, baking festive treats, and bringing out the winter decorations. Although some enjoy the cozy comfort that the holiday season brings, people have begun to feel the stress that the holiday rush tends to institute.
Stores such as Target, Home Depot, Scheels, etc. put their holiday merchandise for purchase around Nov 1. Other stores start as early as September to obtain the maximum number of shoppers. Stores do this because some people want to get their holiday shopping done sooner, so stores would miss out on opportunities to get more money when they do not put it out early. While this is seen as helpful it could frustrate people because they enjoy the experience that each of their seasons brings.
When stores display their holiday goods it can feel like the start of the holiday season. It causes stress on their customers when they feel like they have to rush through life. This also makes the holiday season feel less special because everyday life is more of a consumer blur. When the holiday celebrations are allowed to start early it makes the holiday season feel more about the gifts that are given and the value of materialistic items.
Winter holidays have also begun to take the focus away from other holidays earlier in the year. Thanksgiving is a holiday often overlooked by the shadow of more “important” ones. Most people feel that each holiday has its own month and celebrating December holidays in November and October is too early. The end of the year holidays have felt more like a focus on wants and extreme consumerism.
Senior English teacher Keahi Cambra stated, “I feel it’s rude to skip over Thanksgiving and not give Thanksgiving its proper attention” later he also argued, “The over-commercialization of Christmas takes away from the true intentions of celebrating this holiday.” While Thanksgiving is more about what you are thankful for and what you do for others, Christmas and other holidays have recently brought the focus to them by giving into extreme consumerism and greed. Holidays around the end of the year began with a good message, but it has been shifted into a focus on unnecessary desires.
When these holidays are celebrated before Thanksgiving it is too untimely due to the fact that fall ends on Dec. 21. The winter solstice is the shortest day of the year and it commemorates the start of winter, so from Sept. 22 to Dec. 21 it is still fall. While I believe that the celebration of the holidays before the winter solstice is understandable, before Thanksgiving is entirely too early.
