Garland, beautifully adorned with red ribbon, hangs from the ceiling of Summit Mall. Bright, blinking lights on Christmas trees decorate the stores while shoppers sing along to the faint tune of “Jingle Bells.” Christmas sales and advertisements fill the front windows of the stores while Santa Claus sits in his chair waiting to take pictures with the children in the mall; however, that turkey photo bombing the picture changes the atmosphere.
Snowing may equal winter, but it does not equal Christmas. Christmas celebration seems to be slowly inching its way into the month of November forcing Thanksgiving to be placed on the back burner next to the mashed potatoes. Stores such as Walgreens, Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Macy’s and many others have had Christmas decorations out since the beginning of November. This early start to the “most wonderful time of the year” may weaken its value, as well as the value of other holidays.
The Christmas phenomenon has begun to consume the lives of Americans to the point where people can download apps to countdown the days of Christmas anytime they would like. A few radio stations began to play celebratory music before Halloween, and more began in early November, like Oldies 93.3 which is located in Columbus. Mike Eiland, the community engagement director, program producer and host of 93.3, noted that the listeners determine the date the station started to play Christmas carols. He explained why the listeners wanted to begin to celebrate the Christmas season sooner.
“Typically people consider the Christmas season as beginning the day after Thanksgiving, but we found our listeners like to extend the good feeling of the season by starting early. Some people in my own family almost have their Christmas shopping done. Our retail advertisers begin their holiday advertising the same time we start the music. They play us in the stores and it gets people out shopping,” Eiland said.
Many stores began advertising holiday sales in November and even October, with Black Friday shopping beginning earlier on Thanksgiving Day. According to Consumerist.com, this new trend for stores is called “Christmas Creep” due to the overlap of Christmas with other holidays. Pfsweb.com states that another extreme shopping day known as Cyber Monday has been growing in popularity since its establishment in 2005 and accumulated over 1.98 billion dollars last year, a seventeen percent increase from 2011. Bianca Frammartino, the manager at Bath & Body Works in Summit Mall, acknowledged that the store first starts preparing for Christmas in July. She also mentioned that many people enjoy Christmas just because of the “deals, presents and products.”
“I think the meaning of Christmas is lost and people just want to get deals and shop. I think that is one of the reasons why Christmas keeps coming earlier,” Frammartino said.
Both Frammartino and Eiland believe stores advertise for Christmas to gain profit in sales, but Eiland noted that people also enjoy the holidays because it gives them a boost in spirit.
“I think it’s a financial thing for stores. I doubt if they’d make much money if they waited until Christmas Eve, or the week of Christmas. I think because of world situations and crime in communities, people want the good feeling of the season earlier. I know people who used to get sad when Christmas was over. Having it longer probably helps,” Eiland said.
The Better Health Channel describes Christmas as a very stressful time when people can feel isolated, depressed and pressured. To alleviate the stress, they suggest to finish Christmas shopping early, and to even participate in Christmas shopping gradually over the course of the year starting with post-Christmas sales. Eiland even added that he does not mind Christmas coming earlier because he can get his shopping done sooner, leaving more time to focus on other aspects of his life. Shopping for decorations and presents can take people quite a while, and if they get those tasks finished sooner, they may have more time to relax or take on other responsibilities. Also, because most people have work vactions around Christmas, people may have more time to visit with friends and family if their Christmas shopping is finished. Eiland described another reason why some people may choose to celebrate Christmas sooner.
“Thanksgiving is a holiday that some use as Christmas. For instance, many people can’t come home for both holidays, so when you can’t be here for Christmas, Thanksgiving become[s] that holiday. We notice that a lot with military families. Some military families celebrate Christmas even earlier because they don’t know when they’ll see their loved one again,” Eiland said.
Amy Galehouse, owner of Galehouse Tree Farms in Doylestown, Ohio, noted that most Christmas trees are sold by December 15, and that the holiday season seems to come earlier for all the Christmas tree growers.
“As more trees are grown with a longer life or better needle retention, folks have been setting up their trees earlier each year.  Now [because of the] busy lives people have today, they set the trees up before their Christmas parties start. It used to be that the trees were set up the week before Christmas and then taken down on New Year’s Day,” Galehouse said.
Eiland believes that all of this Christmas hype before December does not ruin its value; however, Frammartino disagrees. By the time Christmas comes around, people may start to return to their lives of watching reality TV shows and filling in the lyrics of “All I Want for Christmas” as “All I want for Christmas is for you to be quiet.”

On November 16, Saturday Night Live presented a skit based on the concept of Christmas coming too early. In the skit, Keenan Thompson, dressed up as an old man, proceeded to tear down Christmas decorations around New York City. Some of his antics involved trying to persuade the workers setting up the iconic tree in Times Square that they were ordered to stop and even taking candy canes given to little children and breaking them on the ground. During his raid, he kept shouting, “It’s too early!” Obviously, the show exaggerated the opinions some people have toward the holiday being celebrated this soon, but the show highlighted the trend of the “Christmas Creep” of 2013.
Though people may have heard those sleigh bells jingling ring-ting-tingling too early this season, something about the holiday is causing all of this anticipation and excitement among Americans. Some may say it is all of the presents one receives, but others will say the build-up originates from the content people feel. This feeling may emerge from the end to a stressful year or simply the feeling of togetherness from a family gathering.