Oh, the holiday season – a time when the stores fill with streamers, inflatable lawn decor adorns front yards, and the signature colors for the destined holidays are seen everywhere. The reds and greens for Christmas, the pinks for Valentine’s Day, and the greens for Saint Patrick’s Day, all hitting the store shelves…three months in advance. Alright, maybe stores are just a little overzealous about their upcoming season, right? Well, it is more than just stores that are busting out the Christmas carols too early: television commercials, radio stations, and even increasingly early store deals sway consumers to commence their holiday shopping early. These hidden yet well-known tactics over-commercialize the holidays and even change the mood of the season.
The weeks between Halloween and Christmas bring the most foot traffic to stores. With the pressing need for both decorations and gifts, customers are roped into buying rapidly and consistently during this period. For decades, businesses have taken this frantic time as an opportunity to turn the holidays into a money-making and business-boosting spree. This is usually when drastic sales are put out for a limited time like Black Friday and Cyber Monday. The mentality of these stores? If consumers are excited about the holidays and the season, then it is only natural to take advantage of the opportunity to promote the holiday-themed products and discounts. According to Engineering Innovation (eii-online.com), the over-commercialization of holidays means that both big and small businesses are able to capitalize off of heightened demand.
With the race to snatch items before they disappear, there seems to be a newfound stress that comes along with the holidays. An abundance of deals thrown at consumers in every direction, the holiday cheer begins to dissipate. The most common explanations for this pre-holiday stress could be the feeling of the dragged-out season, or the pressure to buy a gift at any given chance. According to the American Psychological Association (APA) (apa.org), 63% of adults find the holidays overwhelming and exhausting. Senior Jane Kelly said, “I feel [commercialization] takes out the spirit of the holiday, especially because you get stressed about it when [retailers] are forcing the season on you.”
From the feeling of stress constantly piggybacking on the holiday spirit, the holiday season itself feels like dragging months instead of an exhilarating few weeks. How are consumers supposed to be in the Christmas spirit on the actual day itself, if everywhere they go has been Christmas since Halloween? Sophomore Juliana Garrell remarked, “We just got out of the Halloween season now, and it went straight to Christmas decorations. I feel like stores should wait at least a week before Thanksgiving before putting out other holiday decorations. It just does not feel the same.”
Now, the passionate lovers of the early holiday decoration take over, or dare I say flood, seem to have no problems with this situation. For some, the feeling of the early holidays gives them something to look forward to in the upcoming winter months. The passion for the holidays is so great that heated debates start to occur. Sophomore Shawn Sealey elaborated, “I will say I’ve had heated debates. I think it’s a nothing debate really, but it’s blown up to the point where it is argued about pretty decently.”
While the holiday season undeniably ushers in the feeling of joy and togetherness, it also brings with it a new kind of stress and resentment to the season. Retail stores are too focused on using the opportunity of the holidays to boost their revenue. Maybe, in future years, businesses will own the holidays altogether.
