George Legatt, Third Year, Ancient History
It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Well… for some. Everyone has their own opinion, but I’ve always felt like Christmas is just around the corner whenever you start to hear Mariah Carey and Michael Buble on the radio; there’s just something so undoubtedly joyous about listening to Christmas music.
There is a massive dilemma on when it’s acceptable to start listening to this pseudo-genre of music. The most common opinion I’ve been treated to throughout my 20 years on Earth is that people should wait till the month of December rolls around to listen to Christmas music.
I’ve always disagreed with this sentiment. December is, admittedly, when you can feel the “vibe” and magic of Christmas. At least if like me, you’re a big fan of Christmas. There’s an argument that shops and companies will start using Christmas and the holiday season as a marketing strategy well before December 1st – mainly as soon as Halloween is over, or even as early as September! Obviously, this is taking it a bit too far; so take the consumerist version of when the holiday season starts with a grain of salt.
The rule I’ve given myself for the last few years is that November 25th is marks the date when it is acceptable to start listening to Christmas music. After all, this gives you exactly a month before Christmas to have all the jingle bells you’d like. I have a recurring debate with my friend about this; they argue that you still have the rest of December and even January (the twelve days of Christmas!) to listen to Christmas music, but November is not truly part of the holiday season so it can’t really be seen as an acceptable time to listen to Christmas music. This argument is understandable, but it doesn’t account for the post-Christmas melancholia that starts to kick in around the 27th when all the turkeys have been eaten and all the gifts are unwrapped. How are you supposed to listen to “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas” when in fact it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas is over?! Or “All I Want for Christmas is You”, when you’re going to have to wait till next Christmas to want the “you” Mariah Carey is singing about? I maintain that November 25th is my standard answer.
However, I created a poll on my Instagram asking the very question this article intends to answer, and it seems a lot of people disagree - on the side of both earlier and later than 25th November. I gave the multiple-choice options of December 1st, November 25th and November 1st, hastily adding to the latter “this wasn’t my opinion calm down”, then finally an “other” option. Out of 46 responses, December 1st garnered the most votes with 37% (17 votes), November 25th gained 24% at 11, and to my great surprise, November 1st gained almost a third of the votes with 15. As for “other”, I got 3 responses suggesting around mid-November, and one saying year round (respect, Christmas music largely consists of bangers, but it takes away the magic to listen to it year round).
So, from this data, it seems that far more people than one might think that as soon as Halloween ends, it is immediately time for Wham’s “Last Christmas” to shoot to the top of their most listened to tracks on Spotify. December 1st is the most popular date to start listening to Christmas music (at least, out of 46 people, though from general interactions throughout my life I’d say many agree), but it seems that in this instance most people do start listening before this point. Whilst November 1st seems excessive, given there is Bonfire Night and Remembrance Day as key non-Christmas-related dates soon thereafter, perhaps it is okay to let loose before the 25th as well, and whenever it starts to “feel” like Christmas to the individual person.
I imagine across the pond, where there is Thanksgiving in late November in the US, the feel of Christmas might not take effect till December. However, to round this article off with a suggestion for those in the UK who celebrate Christmas, mid-November seems like the time where it can truly start to feel like Christmas, so let us put forward November 15th as the first “acceptable” Christmas season date, where all things Christmassy become acceptable. Which means by the time this article is released, you may well be able to listen to Christmas music whilst you’re reading it. :)
