A friend of mine quit drinking a few years back and I asked him why. “When life is always a party, it’s never a party,” he said. That’s how I feel about Christmas.
When it’s always Christmas, it’s never Christmas.
But before you brand me as a bitter “bah humbug” type, let me explain. I love Christmas and I think I know how to make it even better.
According to NerdWallet, 20% of Americans start Christmas shopping in the final weeks of summer and that number doubles even before Halloween.
“Forty percent have started Christmas shopping before Halloween,” Bernacchi University of Detroit-Mercy marketing professor Mike Bernacchi explained to WWJ News Radio. “The pumpkins haven’t even gone away yet and Christmas shopping — I mean, 40 percent? That’s just unbelievable.”
It’s simple math: the longer the season, the more you will spend. And we’re doing a fantastic job of obeying our retail masters.
While some look at premature Christmasing with skepticism, others are praising the trend, claiming it gives low-income people a chance to spread out their holiday spending.
But maybe the Christmas industrial complex shouldn’t be pressuring people to overextend themselves in the first place?
Studies show that the average American racked up about $1,000 in holiday debt debt in 2016, and many were still paying it off by Christmas 2017.
Christmas is such an all-pervasive part of American culture that goes on for so long, its magic has been diminished.
When Christmas music is on the radio from November 1 to January 15, it starts to become audio wallpaper.
When “Home Alone” is constantly on television for three months straight, watching Joe Pesci get hit in the nuts feels a little less triumphant.
