The season’s first snowfall has arrived, and across campus, students and staff begin to turn their thoughts to the upcoming holidays. Thanksgiving falls on Thursday, Nov. 27 this year, but even in the first few days of the month, Mariah Carey’s ubiquitous “All I Want For Christmas Is You” and other seasonal staples already echo over all manner of radio stations, homes and places of business.
Some eager students may find themselves getting into the holiday spirit the moment Halloween comes to an end. For others, thoughts of decorations and shopping will not even cross their minds until Thanksgiving has passed. As the most wonderful time of the year draws nearer, a familiar seasonal debate stirs: How early is too early to begin celebrating Christmas?
Oakland University students asserted a variety of perspectives. Some see early decorating, shopping and festive music as a reprieve from stressful finals and fall gloom, while others argue rushing into the Christmas spirit too soon can sometimes detract from concurrent holiday fun.
For student Emily McBain, Christmas can hardly come too early. She indicated that the best time to deck the halls comes in early- or mid-November.
“I think that December is too short,” she said. “It is nice to already have your home decorated when family visits for the holidays, like Thanksgiving.”
Other students prefer to hold off early celebrations in favor of the calendar order.
“I always like to start celebrating Christmas after Thanksgiving,” student Ryan Craig said. “I don’t really like to celebrate holidays early, like when you go into a store and see Christmas decorations for sale, and Halloween hasn’t even happened yet.”
Craig indicated that retail policies of early seasonal decoration and advertising pressures may overshadow other holidays that happen to share end-of-calendar space with Christmas. These policies pose the risk of reducing their overall seasonal prominence and unique holiday atmosphere.
Major retailers like Target and Home Depot have been known to roll out Christmas displays even before trick-or-treaters take to the streets on Halloween.
In a 2024 survey, retail analytics firm Sensormatic Solutions found that 54% of Americans now begin holiday shopping before Nov. 1. This phenomenon, known as Christmas creep, involves retailers stretching the beginning of the holiday shopping season increasingly further into the fall, now preceding the traditional Black Friday onset by weeks.
Even so, for some students, an economic perspective is only one aspect of the debate. The choice to celebrate early is also influenced by the reprieve Christmas break offers from fall semester classes.
“You should set up right after Halloween,” Victoria Parsons, another student in favor of the two-month celebration span, said. She indicated that decorating early can express a sense of optimism as winter break approaches, giving students the strength to stick the fall semester’s landing.
The question of too early may reveal more about students’ relationship with the Christmas tradition than about the timing itself. Some students eagerly adopt the warmth and joy Christmas brings by Halloween’s end, unconcerned with celebratory overlap. For others, holding off until after Thanksgiving can help to preserve its sense of magic.
Craig concludes that perhaps there is something grounding about leaving each holiday with its own time to shine.
“I don’t have an issue with a Christmas tree being up in November, in fact I kind of like it, but there’s no need to skip ahead with holidays,” he said. “Enjoy each of them as they come.”
