If you’re a fan of good cheer, decadent food and festive gatherings, be glad you live in the Pacific Northwest, because the fall and winter months here are a holiday lover’s paradise.
With Halloween behind us and the jack-o’-lanterns starting to collapse, we can now look forward to the next big holiday.
Christmas.
Or am I forgetting something? Ah, Thanksgiving. How could I forget?
It seems every year, Christmas has slowly been creeping up on Thanksgiving when we least expect it, and people are starting to take notice.
United States Women’s National soccer team forward Alex Morgan was among those who are not too pleased with Christmas coming early, and she went to social media, of course, to vent about it.
“Seriously saw Christmas wreaths and ornaments all over Houston today. Come on people. Too early. Too early…,” Morgan said.
We’ve all heard it from both sides of the issue: either you complain about hearing Christmas music as soon as the calendar hits November, or you are gleefully singing along to “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.”
I even overheard a conversation about someone listening to Christmas music a week before Halloween started.
It’s no secret anymore, and to be honest, it really never was.
Christmas is America’s favorite holiday.
A multi-billion-dollar industry, Christmas has conditioned us as a society to start gearing up to spend big on gifts, trees and lights as soon as possible.
Thanksgiving doesn’t have anywhere near the same pull in terms of marketability as Christmas, which is often why it seems to be rushed out the door like an unwanted guest.
If the capitalization of the holidays bothers you, I am sorry to say not much can be done to stop it.
A 2012 statistic from Statista puts total retail industry sales during Christmas time at $3.12 trillion.
As the population continues to rise in the U.S., this number will only continue to increase.
Compared to $59.1 billion spent on Thanksgiving in 2013, according to U.S. News, and $6.9 billion spent on Halloween, according to Forbes, it is painfully obvious that Christmas is also America’s No. 1 consumer spending holiday.
Basically, we have ourselves to blame for the phenomenon of Christmas decorations going up earlier and earlier every year.
Pacific Lutheran University, and most universities around the country know this, and the annual PLU Christmas Concert is one of the university’s top grossing events.
PLU Christmas Concert ticket sales opened at 7 a.m. sharp, and eager concertgoers had already been lined up since 5:30 a.m. on Nov. 3.
Just three hours later, the concert sold out completely.
As if the tickets flying off the printer weren’t enough of an indication that PLU is all about Christmas, Santa Claus made an appearance in PLU’s Anderson University Center the following day.
Thanksgiving lacks the same feel-good vibe as Christmas, and while is hard to beat the Thanksgiving spread, there’s a reason PLU doesn’t have a Thanksgiving turkey concert.
The answer of how to push Christmas back to its rightful month is unclear, but at least football does its part to make Thanksgiving relevant.
So, please, save your trip to the Christmas tree farm until the Thanksgiving leftovers have been eaten.