Point/Counterpoint: Is it too early to start celebrating Christmas?

Debating whether holiday cheer can pre-date Halloween horror

Image by: Ezri Wyman
Queen's students discuss the pros and cons of early Christmas festivities.

Yes

The Christmas holidays are, as the popular tune goes, a wonderful time of year. They’re full of family, bright decorations, and celebration, as well as some classic songs. However, timing is everything. Beginning our celebration three months before December—before Halloween even has a chance to occur—is just too early. 

If Christmas celebration becomes normal year-round, it won’t hold the same charm. Celebrating it for three months straight will definitely cause the holiday to become tired once December 25 arrives. Do we want to be ready for New Year’s or Valentine’s Day by the time Christmas Eve rolls around? Do we want to be annoyed by the Christmas songs on the radio at the very time we’re supposed to enjoy them the most? Because if we start celebrating now, that will happen. 

Celebrating Christmas this early completely disregards the amazing and fun holidays in-between. This mainly pertains to Halloween: it’s a chance to dress up as whoever or whatever you want and a perfect excuse to buy candy and eat what you don’t hand out. That doesn’t sound so bad to me. Pumpkins, pumpkin pie, and apple pie—these are all things associated with fall and Halloween, but not with Christmas. If we start celebrating Christmas now, it’s going to be hard to get in the spirit of spooky season. 

Christmas is a fun and merry time of year, but October just isn’t the right time to start its celebration. We need to appreciate what’s in front of us, and right now, that’s Halloween. 

Christmas will come—if we can hold off for now, it will be that much better when it does. 

—Noor Yassein, Contributor

No

There are exactly 55 days between Halloween and Christmas. In those 55 short days, I am expected to cram cookie decorating, caroling, movie watching, and listening to my favourite Christmas albums. I say those expectations are unacceptable. I’m even willing to be so bold as to say that 365 days isn’t enough to contain all of that holiday cheer. 

I’m a devoted and passionate Christmas-holic. I grew up in a household that celebrates the holiday to an outrageous degree. We always have a Christmas tree on every floor of the house, as well as boxes and boxes of Christmas themed decor that I take out as early as I can. What’s so wrong with wanting to be in the Christmas spirit before Halloween? 

I am a well-practiced multitasker, so I am more than capable of appreciating multiple holidays at once. I’m not trying to take away from the importance of Halloween—it’s just as exciting as Christmas. That is, except for the fact that you don’t get to unwrap gifts, nobody makes full-length albums for the occasion, and it isn’t a nationally recognized holiday. 

I feel like Christmas deserves far more than 55 days to get hyped for. The extraordinarily talented Taylor Swift croons in her bop Lover, “we can leave the Christmas lights up ’til January.” I would like to politely disagree and say we can leave them up until next December, because for me, Christmas isn’t a holiday—it’s a lifestyle. 

—Emily Clare, Staff Writer

Tags

Holidays, point/counterpoint

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