Holidays should be celebrated during their own seasons

By The Pine Tree Editorial Staff

We’re nearing the end of October, which of course means Halloween. Theoretically, this is
supposed to mean that it’s the ideal time for stores to be full of decorations and costumes, but it
seems that the stores and people alike have already moved on to Christmas. It’s only halfway
through October, and Halloween and Thanksgiving are already over. Something is just not right
about that.

Holidays, especially the ones toward the end of the year, have their own clear and distinct time
to be celebrated. That being said, we need to take those times seriously and only celebrate the
holiday happening soonest. If you skip around and celebrate whichever holiday you want,
whenever you want to, you’re overshadowing the holiday that should be in the spotlight.

Also, if everyone just decides to skip ahead to the holidays they like the most when that holiday
is not for another two months, people might start to get frustrated or even tired of that holiday
before it’s even supposed to be celebrated. Medical advice websites like medicinenet.com even
offer stress management advice for what they call Holiday Burnout.

Think about it, everyone knows at least one person who hates Christmas music. Maybe they
wouldn’t hate it, though, if people didn’t start thinking about Christmas in October. It happens
with other holidays, too of course. Halloween decorations line the shelves of stores as early as
September, and by October, the fall decorations and anything turkey related are shoved away
into a corner to make room for Christmas trees. Because who cares about Thanksgiving, right?

Don’t get us wrong, we love Christmas and all these holidays, we just think there’s an
appropriate time to celebrate. Right now, the focus should be on the holiday at hand. This can
be said pretty much year-round.

Celebrating holidays is a memorable time spent with people you love. Each holiday has
something different to remember why it is so special, such as Thanksgiving. This holiday brings
loved ones together to celebrate their blessings. There is so much history behind this holiday
that is overlooked by the business of other holidays and the overstepping of businesses pushing
other holidays upon us.

People jump from Halloween to Christmas not realizing they truly haven’t celebrated
Thanksgiving. The story of the First Thanksgiving is taught at a young age, but we tend to forget
the story as we get older. We overlook what this day is really about. There are many reasons
families come together for Christmas, like for gifts and money, but Thanksgiving is a time of
year when you see family you haven't spoken to in a while, and there is no gift incentive
involved.
There should be certain time frames or boundaries for holidays like Thanksgiving. If we were not
pushed by holiday advertisements, decor, gifts and music we can focus on how important
individual holidays are.

At midnight after Thanksgiving we are pushed into a rush for Christmas as we stand in crowded,
long lines waiting to buy a perfect gift, and that happiness and love we felt the entire day before
slowly drifts away. Black Friday brings all of those unnecessary holiday horrors into our life as
we are focused on things that really don’t matter. We need to start encouraging the patience of
these holidays because we get fixated on the idea of corporate happiness but miss the true joy
of the holidays.

The reason holidays seem to be getting closer and closer together may have to do with how
early some businesses put out their products. In 2018 department stores made a total of 19.4
billion dollars in the United States, and 12.5% of sales at toy and games stores was made
during the month of December. A lot of shopping goes on during the month of December
already, yet companies still seem to always push out their Christmas themed items or
decorations early. We ourselves have even noticed that stores are already selling Christmas
ornaments. Just for context on how soon that is, at the time of publication, Halloween still has
not happened yet.

It also causes the problem of holiday celebrations starting earlier and earlier. When the
company sells Christmas merchandise early, the people who like to get a head start on
Christmas decorating will buy the products. This in turn creates a cycle in which consumerism
starts to dictate the holiday season. This cycle ruins Christmas, a day when the hustle and
bustle of life should be put aside for friends and family. Besides, there have been plenty of
Christmas movies that employ this exact same theme; Christmas isn’t about what you buy or
how pretty the tree is, but about how you spend time with those you love. Plus, waiting until
Christmastime to buy your gifts will not hurt the companies either. Amazon sold about 7.16
billion dollars’ worth of goods in 2019, which is a 71% increase from 2018. The major reason for
this increase was simply because the sale lasted just a mere 12 hours longer.

We see how companies are motivated primarily by revenue incentives. In this Forbes article,
companies and small businesses are advised to start planning and marketing at least four
months ahead of each holiday to produce more sales. From a marketing standpoint, and in a
country where capitalism is embraced and promoted, we acknowledge how that can be great;
more sales means more money. However, coming from the consumer’s standpoint, we also
realize how holidays are exploited for financial gain by many companies and acknowledge we
have the power to not allow them to dictate when we are to celebrate holidays.

When you see Christmas decorations on sale as early as September, that is pushing the line.
When stores go straight from Halloween to Christmas, they are overlooking Thanksgiving, which
is one of the most important holidays in American history.
We understand there are people who might not celebrate a certain holiday and will choose to
skip it, which is fair. But we do not think those people should be allowed to ignore the fact the
holiday exists and move on to the next one. The holiday time frames should be paced
throughout the year in such a way so each gets the attention it deserves, and each holiday is
able to be celebrated fully. By celebrating the holidays during their own distinct times, we will be
able to have a year filled with consecutive festivities.

Halloween is just around the corner, so right now should be the time for preparing costumes and
telling spooky stories around the campfire. We urge all of those who are looking to make the
most out of this holiday season to pay attention to when they choose to start decorating for each
holiday and when they choose to start celebrating.

Meredith Janning, Sophie Galloway, Sandra Carranza, Collin Maxwell