OPINION: When Christmas music becomes acceptable

a definitive answer to the debate over when Christmas music season begins

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Christmas music is a topic that’s so divisive and anger inducing that I risk being mobbed at The Hub by muttering a few simple words—when can we listen to Christmas music? There are many schools of thought on this, and I’m going to walk you through all of them and reveal my own definitive holiday music schedule.

The first time a reasonable person would consider listening to Christmas music would be during the first snowfall of the year. This happened during late October for Idaho this year. Regrettably, the snow mostly disappeared by the end of the month, so that cozy holiday feeling quickly dissipated. This wonderfully reasonable method feels like the most natural way to start your holiday season.

The only downside is, depending on where you live, the snow could come too early or not at all. Alaska, for instance, could have its first snowfall as early as September, and even a Christmas lover like me wouldn’t consider September the right time for snazzy Christmas tunes. On the opposite side of the coin you have places like California, where the snow could wait until after December or not show up at all. Minimal snow for the holidays is one of the reasons I actively protest California.

The next possible date to start your Christmas listenin’ would be Nov. 1. With Halloween decorations being taken down, why not put up your tree full of decor and start the tunes? It’s very convenient. What could possibly be wrong with it? Well a little something called Thanksgiving of course. We must remember to respect the season of Thanksgiving. Not because of its spotty history, but because it’s always a good reminder to take the time to give thanks for what we have. Too often Thanksgiving is passed over for Christmas, and I’m not going to stand for it.

The next option would be to start the Christmas “tune-age” the day after Thanksgiving. With no other underappreciated holidays in the way, you can begin the holiday season guilt free with no distractions. Some purists would rather wait until Dec. 1 to begin the holiday jams, but this approach is too extreme for anyone. The post-Thanksgiving strategy also dramatically shortens your personal Christmas season.

So, with all the options laid out in front of us, when do I recommend you start your Christmas music? For any normal year, I would recommend starting the tunes after Halloween with a moratorium during Thanksgiving week, out of respect. On Black Friday the groove is back in action with “tune-age” out the wazoo.

But as we all know, this has been anything but normal. With COVID-19 in the mix Halloween was effectively canceled for many. Given the lack of a ghoulish holiday I recommend we push the date to the first sticky snowfall, within reason of course. Keep the moratorium Thanksgiving week and you have a definitive 2020 Christmas music schedule.

Ben Kendall can be reached at [email protected].

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