The Christmas season is often regarded as the happiest time of the year. We think of Christmas as snowy yet warm with hope and joy, drinking Starbucks peppermint hot chocolate and building gingerbread mansions. All of these things and more represent and embody the Christmas season, spirit, and feeling, but when does it start?
According to Wikipedia, the Christmas season starts the day after Thanksgiving and ends the day after New Years. However, big-name stores each year put their Christmas and holiday items out earlier and earlier, looking to make more money. For example, Target and Walmart often start selling Christmas items in late October. Costco has also jumped on the trend and has been selling its fake Christmas trees since late September.
Stores’ strategies for Christmas revenue do not pertain to how Americans view the beginning and end of the season. At Santa Catalina School, a little over forty percent of students polled said the season starts in early November, after Halloween, and almost fifty percent believe the Christmas season begins on December first. However, many students who had previously said they started celebrating after Thanksgiving have begun to embrace the Christmas season as the month of November has gone on.
Even though some people do not celebrate Christmas as a religious holiday or start celebrating very early, there is a specific start and end to the religious Christmas season. Christmas as a religious holiday begins on Christmas day and ends on the feast of the baptism of the Lord.
Although decorations and stores make Christmas seem materialistic, the true spirit of Christmas is not. Christmas is a feeling of warmth and being with people you love. So even though everything around us telling us to celebrate helps us embrace the season, the feeling of Christmas can only be found within.
So when does the season start? There is no correct answer when it comes to Christmas. The Christmas season begins whenever you want it to because it is not as much of a season as it is a feeling.
LAMPLIGHTER 