Strolling through the mall, driving to the movie theater, waiting for a table at dinner—it doesn’t matter where you go; the day after Thanksgiving begins the onslaught of holiday tunes.
Don’t get me wrong; I love jamming to “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” but all in due time, radio stations. Getting an earful of these songs before we even enter December seems like overkill. And by the time we do, I’ve heard enough sleigh bells ring-ting-tingaling and chestnuts roasting to last two holiday seasons.
It all reminds me of Hugh Grant’s character Will in About a Boy. In his case, he gets an even earlier dose of the holidays tunes with his father’s song, “Santa’s Super Sleigh”:
“November the sodding 19th. Six weeks before Christmas and already they were playing the bloody thing.”
I say, let’s preserve what little novelty these songs have and put them on heavy rotation only starting, say, December 4—a good three weeks before Christmas.
Is anyone else with me? If so, what songs drive you up the wall?
Photo: Everett Collection
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You guys have it easy. Here in Canada, it starts around November 15th. “Winter Wonderland” wears out its welcome before there’s a single flake of snow.
be grateful for nov 15th! i work at the bookstore chain Indigo/Chapters, and we’ve been playing christmas music since november 1. and we had our christmas displays up before halloween! almost makes you hate christmas.
I’m a survivor of that chain, too…my GAWD, Barbra Streisand’s Jingle Bells still haunts me. Luckily, I’ve found it is possible to love Christmas again after leaving retail
Heh. When I worked at Indigo, we were definitely bombarded with holiday tunes throughout our shifts. So happy to not be working there anymore…
I’m one of the indigo robots too ( Coles). But I’m in the minority – I LOVE Christmas tunes. Beats the hell out of having to listen to Diana Krall for the 20000 time.
haha i love it though! i was just going to say it starts after halloween here!
it started right after halloween here (toledo, oh) too…in the grocery stores, no less
November 15th?! Which part of the country do you live in that allows its stores to be undecorated until November 15th? In Ottawa this year Christmas decorations began making their appearance before Halloween. Quite a bit before Halloween.
BeezleBob, you obviously don’t live in Quebec. We’ve had Christmas decorations and carols since at least the first of November. Drives me nuts, but it’s been like that for years now.
Here in Madison, WI, one of the radio stations started Christmas song rotation on November 5. Ridiculous!
Same thing with a radio station in Chapel Hill, NC. And they don’t even play the GOOD Christmas music.
Haven’t Christmas songs been playing since November 1st. I’ll take the day after Thanksgiving compared to November 1st.
Thanksgiving weekend was always the kickoff to the christmas season…No propblem with that at all. But now Halloween and christmas decorations are intermingled in the stores and christmas music is on all of the speakiers…TOO EARLY..Thanksgiving day..bring it on!!
Thanksgiving is a great holiday all on it’s own. It should never be bum-rushed out the door just to make room for Christmas. Christmas season should start December 1, not one minute sooner.
Thank you! I feel like Thanksgiving gets squashed because it’s in between Halloween decorations and Christmas decorations and shopping. There’s plenty of time for Christmas music in December. Actually, I think they should play Halloween music a little more than just Halloween night.
I agree. Focus on Halloween stuff on October, Thanksgiving stuff on November, and then Christmas stuff on December. It makes sense, and gives each holiday of each month enough time to breathe. Having Christmas songs come out as early as Nov. 1 is ridiculous.
I don’t like it when they play Christmas music in the stores before or on Thanksgiving.I prefer it starting on December 1st and on through the rest of the month. Don’t take attention away from the other holidays before Christmas.
Nope sorry. After Thanksgiving = Christmas.
Here in Birmingham, AL, one of the radio stations began playing round-the-clock Christmas music the day after Halloween. Sigh.
Same here in Denver. And it’s the cheesy, annoying stuff that I’ve already heard about a million times before. …
Die.
That’s the Xmas spirit all right- death threats. You must be an exemplary human being, what with loving shite maudlin xmas pap enough to tell strangers to die and all.
We also got an all Christmas music radio and tv station the day after Halloween. THAT is ridiculous and inapproriate. The day after Thanksgiving is fine. Before Thanksgiving is a little despicable.
Dude, if you’re just hearing them now, you’ve had amazingly good luck. On October 16th, I went to Macys to pick up some Martha Stewart stencils for Halloween, and they were already taken down and replaced by Thanksgiving. And lo and behold… right down the isle, the Christmas trees were being decorated. On October 16th.
LOVE YOUR SHOUT OUT TO ABOUT A BOY! Such an underrated Hugh Grant performance and movie!!
But I mean, like, songs like ‘Christmas is All Around’ and ‘All I Want for Christmas’ – Love Actually style NEVER get old so…..
I’m personally fine with the day after Thanksgivng…though the Monday after would be perfect for me.
I can stomach a few songs a day in November, but I’m a December 1 girl. That’s when I start the continuous Christmas music. The girls that I work with insisted on starting the Christmas music November 1 (this is my first year in this particular office and I didn’t know the rules!), but I would have none of it! So we made a compromise and decided to give up two weeks each, starting the music on November 15. Lucky for me, we neglected to play anything the first three days.
I’m fine with Christmas music starting the day after Thanksgiving. I enjoy it. But here in Detroit, we have a radio station that started playing Christmas music all day at the start of November.
Black Friday has always been the start of the holiday season, but I think it would be better to have decorations and all of that go up and then bring on the songs and the rest of the merriment of Christmas on the first week of December. It kind of seems like this whole start of the holiday season is getting out of hand. Christmas commercials before even Thanksgiving! Ridiculous!!
In my area, not one but TWO local radio stations switched to “All Christmas Music” on November 1. OY! Thank god for Sirius Satellite Radio. I haven’t listened to “terrestrial radio” in years, but when I heard about the change on 11/01, I just shook my head.
darclyte, where are you? Because that’s exactly what happened here in Fort Worth!
Detroit area.
1. Christmas/Hanukah songs should start December 1. The only real reason they start the day after Thanksgiving is to influence consumers to spend.
2. Radio stations should throw in a holiday song every now and then but not non-stop. Too much of a good thing is bad and annoying.