I was recently stunned when I found a shop the day after Halloween that was loudly playing Christmas music. Is there anything we can do to stop (or at least postpone) this terrible mess? We all know it’s just an enterprise ploy to get us to spend more. – Nagger
A long time ago, the Christmas season broke through the Thanksgiving Day Maginot Line, which was once thought to be impenetrable. Now, as you notice, it is joining forces on the brink of October. When Halloween falls, nothing will stop Yuletide from marching virtually unhindered through a hopelessly inferior Labor Day until July 4th and beyond.
The art term for this phenomenon is “Christmas Creep”. But is Christmas really creeping in? The term has been in use since at least the 1960s, and I found a complaint in a 1901 newspaper about Christmas advertisements in October “rushing the season.” have you been grumbling about the terrible music of youth and the disrespect for the fine lawn care since Plato’s time?
Another example: In 2015, a story spread about Nordstrom’s “one holiday at a time” policy – no Christmas decorations in their stores until after Thanksgiving. The internet was happy to see someone finally taking a long overdue stance against Christmas creeps – but then it turned out that Nordstrom had been doing the same thing every year since at least the 1980s.
If every generation has the same ailments, one explanation is that nothing is changing. Maybe it’s just an illusion that the holiday season is expanding. Maybe there is actually nothing to fear? Maybe the Crimea has always been a part of Rus – wait a minute, what is it? It is a press release from Nordstrom from October 2021. In it they promise Christmas photo boxes, a “Holiday Gift Shop” in the store and visits to Santa Claus – all from October 4th.
If every generation has the same ailments, another explanation is that what is complained about gets worse and worse every year. By this logic, Justin Bieber is literally the worst ever, Plato must have had a lawn to die for, and it’s only a matter of time before the Christmas season actually starts before Christmas of the previous year – and God only knows what one of the unholy interdimensional ones Time portals that will unleash the world. Much luck.
Questions? Send them to dr.know@wweek.com.