The Early Birds Celebrate (And Tout) Christmas Creep
by If Christmas in July doesn’t get you, watch out – that office worker dressed as Santa Claus may appear even in mid-June.
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One June, I was watching my nightly round of news. One night, when I viewed a commercial break riddled with weight loss promotions to annoy the daylights out of me, an ad for a sexual enhancement drug cued on, and it featured a scene of an office holiday party, with one worker as as Santa Claus! I was really stunned to see such a commercial air in mid-June – I just saw the first seeds of a phenomenon that helps retailers reel in revenue and makes people who revel in the Yuletide spirit between Thanksgiving and midnight, December 26 (Some people, especially devout Christians, extend it to January 6, the Epiphany rant against it.)
The Christmas creep had arrived.
This phenomenon is more than just touting the said holiday’s items and the so-called “holiday sales” during dates as early as July or even late June. Recently, a handful of radio stations started playing the seasonal music as early as late September – and it’s not even Halloween yet. Most people think that “witch season” is a completely inapt time for the street lights – even stoplights – that flash their bright red and green as the shoppers rush home with their presents, not to mention that it’s invading a time when big-box stores peddle kids’ princess and cell phone costumes.
What’s more, I’ve read reports on other blogs about people hearing holiday muzak (music piped from speakers) in their local shops around the time when we are just days, weeks, or even months prior to All Hallows Eve. Even as far away as Britain, people are noticing it too. One music documentary aired on a Remembrance Day in Britain, and it contained two Christmas songs, for instance. (I don’t even give a care about that, mostly because I admire everything about the presenter, even his beautiful singing voice!) Christmas recently freed its early birds – earlier than ever – and come late October this year, eventually in a few subsequent years to come (maybe in late July), show choirs would start belting out “Because it’s Christmas.”
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