Henry Timmer-Hackert
Holidays are special for many, or at least they should be. As more companies use Christmas to sell goods earlier in the year, the season has expanded from gift-giving to good-selling. More worryingly, the Christmas season has moved into fall. My family celebrates Christmas every year, a tradition we’ve upheld my entire life; with almost two decades of jolly experience under my belt, I can say Christmas needs to stay confined within the month of December.
Those who cling to Christmas festivities, trying to milk them for all they’re worth, may claim the Christmas season is decisively better than the rest of the year. They’re wrong. Ask any retail worker after seven hours of Christmas music how merry they are, and you’ll get your answer. Christmas music gets old. There, I said it. It gets old after a month. By noting this peak in the Christmas season, it’s clear that the best time to start festivities is the very start of December.
Despite this, it’s common to see stores selling Christmas decorations well before fall is over. This early start to the season is mainly based on greed because stores simply sell more in the festive season. This commodification of Christmas pushes jolly ideas before they’re ready to be received by the public. The start of Christmas needs to be determined by the people, not corporate shills.
Some, like my opponent, will argue that the festive season should start closer to the middle of the fall, perhaps even in October. This idiotic narrative completely ignores the necessity of a transition between peak fall and the winter season. October is the season of pumpkin spice and cooling weather. Leaping abruptly into Mariah Carey and gifts under trees is simply too much. Additionally, November serves as a valuable transition period for Halloween decorations to be brought down without immediately putting up Christmas lights.
November’s tragic neglect exhibits how early Christmas fanatics would see Thanksgiving forgotten. However, Thanksgiving is an integral part of the year and placing it under the “Christmas season” ignores that it should be its own holiday. It has its own aesthetic that shouldn’t be stuffed under Christmas’s shadow. Ultimately, those obsessive individuals that would extend Christmas decorations throughout the entire year are the same individuals ignoring the potential of Thanksgiving.
Inquiring readers may be frustrated by these statements because some enjoy Christmas decorations’ longevity. To respond to this conundrum, I propose that the Christmas season shouldn’t stop after the presents are unwrapped. Weak-minded Christmas fans could never realize the season’s true potential by extending it into January. By extending the season into January, real Christmas enthusiasts can partake in festivities while school is still off and before the new year truly starts, keeping a snow-focused holiday where it should be: in the snow.
This accounts for the primary reason that the Christmas season should wait: the weather. Christmas is fundamentally dependent on snow. From classic songs to winter activities, so much of the Christmas season is based on snow no matter where you live. Even in hotter climates, the image of Christmas is still associated with imagery of snowmen and sledding. The aesthetics, traditions and iconography of Christmas rely on the winter to shine. By pushing the season earlier it ensures that the first several weeks are a green Christmas — or more realistically — a brown Christmas.
Carter Birch Houchins-Witt
I love the holidays. Christmas is my second favorite day of the year (after my birthday), and limiting the Christmas season to only one month is indicative of someone who hates the holidays. My opponent Henry Timmer-Hackert, a man without a joyous bone in his body, a human version of Sadness from “Inside-Out,” believes the Christmas season needs to be “special” and “unique.” I disagree. The Christmas season is already unique — there’s nothing else like it in the year — so why not enjoy it for as long as possible? That’s why it should start Halloween night.
According to a poll conducted by OnePoll on behalf of Dutch Bros, 52% of adults think there isn’t enough time in the Christmas season to complete all the necessary activities. It’s impossible to watch 20 Christmas movies, ice skate, shop for ugly sweaters and eat holiday foods all in one month. According to the survey, 74% of people think prepping for holidays puts them in a good mood. Why would you only prepare holiday festivities for a month if you can stretch it into two? Put up that tree A.S.A.P. (Say that out loud, it’s more catchy). We need to go all the way with this. I’m talkin’ two-month advent calendars, gingerbread houses in November; the whole works.
Henry will try to convince you Christmas music gets boring, but that’s a bald-faced lie. Christmas music is joyous. Why else do the exact same songs come back every year without fail? Really, who hasn’t sung along to “All I Want for Christmas is You” by Mariah Carey as loud as they could while alone in their car at least once? You know, I’ve probably done it twice! The songs don’t get old, given by their annual return.
Christmas was originally a religious holiday, but not anymore. According to Statista, 85% of Americans celebrate Christmas, and given only 63% are Christian according to Pew Research, a significant portion of the population celebrates Christmas nonreligiously. This can dispel the theory that the Christmas season should only exist around Advent, which begins on the first Sunday of December.
The Christmas season is also called the holiday season, to allow non-Christian holidays to participate in festivities, but that can be expanded. Why can’t Thanksgiving be part of the holiday season? It’s a holiday, after all. Shouldn’t the holiday season be kicked off with a holiday itself? That’s right, I’m talking about Halloween.
Let’s be honest, Halloween in Iowa is cold. Cold enough to count as holiday season? Yes. Yes, it is. In fact, in 2019, Iowa was covered in snow as early as Halloween, and with such a strong correlation between snow and holidays, Halloween should apply as the holiday season.
Receiving and giving gifts is undoubtedly the best part of the holiday season; it’s a staple of kindness and thankfulness among families. You know what else has thankfulness and kindness and gift giving? Thanksgiving. On Thanksgiving, people make food they share as gifts. On Halloween, people give candy as gifts. It’s all gift giving, it’s all kindness, and thus it should all be considered holiday season.
Additionally, the Christmas season doesn’t end on Christmas. It ends after the New Year. Start on a holiday, end on a holiday. Folks, that’s what the Christmas season is all about — celebration and spending time with family and friends, which happens on both Thanksgiving and Halloween. That celebration should last as long as possible, so thus, Christmas season needs to start on Halloween.