It’s 11:59 p.m. on Oct. 31. The luckiest trick-or-treaters are sneaking one more piece of candy before bed and others are enjoying their sugar-induced night of sleep. But for some, they anxiously watch their phone until the second it becomes 12:00 a.m. on Nov. 1. It’s Christmas time! Or is it? There is an annual debate over when it is appropriate to begin recognizing the Christmas season, and 2022 is no exception.

It’s never too early to start thinking about the gifts you are going to give because that takes planning. However, it’s November. There needs to be some kind of wait at least. 

Christmas is so special and a great time of year because it isn’t an all year-round thing. It’s understandable that many people want that happiness and good will towards man as soon as possible, but it is only that way because it is a short period of time.

After all, it is one of the best times of the year, and if it makes you happy, why would you wait? 25 days is not nearly enough time to enjoy the Christmas spirit. There’s nothing wrong with bringing out your sweaters and listening to Christmas music right after Halloween. 

There are those who own a plethora of Christmas sweaters and proudly wear them as early as November 1, so they would be the ones to think it is absolutely early enough to start celebrating. They might not have anything against Thanksgiving or people who chose to wait until that holiday has passed, but Christmas is a season and Thanksgiving is just a day. It’s understandable that for some people they would get “Christmased” out when listening to Christmas music and doing all the festive things in November, but many others couldn’t relate.

In all seriousness, one could argue that we have marketed Christmas so lucratively in these last few years and have made a large number of companies really jump the gun on Christmas advertising, thus affecting everyone else’s perceptions of when to celebrate the Christmas season. So much so that we have cut out a whole month and another national holiday that to many people is much better than Christmas.

The longer the Christmas season becomes, the less magic is in the air. If we’re being bombarded by Michael Bublé and Mariah Carey before Thanksgiving even rolls around, you better believe many will get tired of it before the 12 Days of Christmas or the endless Hallmark marathons. Christmas can be a really special time regardless of why you celebrate, and many would agree that you can have too much of a good thing. At least wait until December 1. Please.

From the perspective of someone who is from outside the US but spending the holidays here, holidays like Thanksgiving have far less significance overseas. So for them, you can totally start celebrating Christmas sometime in November. Maybe not November 1, but I’m definitely already in Christmas spirit halfway through November.

The Slate is not going to tell people when they should celebrate, but for some they may personally like to wait until Thanksgiving is over. 

October through December is the best time of the year for a lot of people, but it might be more special to celebrate each holiday as they come. Christmas is such a short period of time, but that is what makes it so magical to begin with.

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