It was a cold autumn afternoon on October 30th when I walked into Mendham’s Kings’ supermarket; it was the peak week for fall foliage, and the maples lining the streets were a crimson smear against the sky. The sun had just dipped below the tree line, casting a golden glow, almost from within. I was looking to buy candy for the following day, Halloween. Though as I entered the store, and to my surprise, I was assailed not by pumpkins or jackolanterns, nor skeletons or scary masks; before me, loomed towering pines, bedecked in humongous silver and red baubles, all reeking of evergreen-scented Yankee candles. So, it had begun, but why so early? Why Christmas?

Christmas, as an official holiday celebration, originated in the 4th century and has both Christian and pagan roots, considered to be the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. At its inception, Christmas bore little resemblance to how we view the holiday today; there were no Christmas trees until the 16th century, St. Nicholas was simply a bishop, and gift giving was not a standardized practice until the 19th century. Today, the preparation for the holiday looks a lot different: according to the National Retail Federation, the average consumer plans to budget $890 for holiday expenditures this year, and holiday sales are expected to surpass $1 trillion. As a society, we have moved away from celebrating Christmas as a religious holiday as well, even in some religious circles that have traditionally felt passionately about the religiosity of the holiday; according to YouGov in 2024, since 2022, the share of Americans who agree there is a war on Christmas in the United States has fallen to 23% from 39%. For context, ‘the war on Christmas’ refers to a predominantly conservative, Christian movement in which followers believe that the progressive media have threatened the traditional, religious aspects of Christmas. Thus, on a societal level, our view of the holiday has shifted drastically, but what about the preferences and experiences of students within our own community?

In a survey administered last week in The Patriot’s Weekly News Recap, students were asked about their holiday traditions and their opinions regarding when they believe it is acceptable to begin certain festivities, i.e., listening to festive music or putting up special decorations. Most importantly, they were asked about their experience for this year, specifically with the beginning of the ‘Christmas season’. Considering the low number of respondents, the survey’s results are not viable. However, more than half responded yes to the question of whether the celebration of Christmas this year had begun sooner than in previous Christmases. Additionally, several of the respondents shared their personal opinions, particularly regarding the question: “When do you believe it’s time to listen to holiday music?” One student said,  “I don’t know, but I’d like for Mariah Carey to stay defrosted” in reference to an Instagram post by Mariah Carey, in which the pop star jokingly refers to herself as beginning to “defrost” for the holiday season; here lies the cultural reconstruction that our celebration of Christmas exemplifies: the holiday has become entrenched in popular culture, spread by social media. 

It is a well-reported fact that our attention spans have been declining; according to the Wall Street Journal in the 2023 opinion piece “How to Restore Our Dwindling Attention Spans” by Gloria Mark, over the last two decades, the average time a person can focus on one thing has decreased from two and a half minutes to forty-five seconds. This phenomenon has impacted all parts of human lives, from our interpersonal relationships to our consumption of media, to even our long-term goals. It isn’t hard to imagine that people find it increasingly hard to wait for the Christmas season, especially due to its deep-seated prevalence within mass culture and as a vehicle for business—from major brand deals, to smaller influencers pushing their own products masked by what we now think of as the Christmas ‘spirit’: the high acheived by putting things into our both literal and metaphorical shopping carts. 

So, can you really blame society for wanting to start the holiday season a little earlier? I argue no. As human beings, our brains were never meant to grapple with the pace of modern media, so it’s no wonder that we struggle to wait it out, even skipping other major holidays in between, those without as much of a consumerist culture. 

This leads us to the question of the future: is this a sustainable trend? What should be done, if anything? Is it a problem that we cannot pass the proverbial marshmallow test, or in other words, practice self-discipline in our delay of gratification? These are inquiries that only time can answer, though for the time being, despite my seemingly bah-humbug views, I am content with beginning the holiday a little earlier. People need something positive to celebrate, even if it means we continue to fail the marshmallow test, even if it means that we lose what we have to look forward to.