Yes- Christmas now begins at 12:01AM on November 1st. A full 55 days before the main event or in other words, Christmas is now 15% of the year.
What a pain in ass it is to type “Bublé” with the correct accent. I had to use Character Map so it’d paste correctly!
Christmas Growth
Christmas has been set as December 25th for Western faiths since at least the 4th Century AD and it didn’t take long for December 24th (Christmas Eve) to take hold with it’s own distinct vibe and traditions. (Feast of the seven fishes, vigil masses, putting out cookies for Santa etc.) However, in modern times, Christmas capitalism went into overdrive.
Advent —-the first season of the Christian church year leading up to Christmas and including the four preceding Sundays —- joined the fun marketing cardboard punch-out calendars with stale chocolate
Christmastime is still technically its own thing extending the holiday past December 25th all the way to January 6th. For returns to Amazon and Target I suppose.
Christmas in July caught on in the early 20th Century as a reason to sell toys and smooth out supply chain demand in the 4th quarter
By the mid 20th century, Christmas season firmly began when Santa came down 34th Street for the Macy’s Parade and invited everyone in for shopping.
And now pop up Spirit Halloween stores and pumpkin spice lattes are all that’s keeping Christmas from taking over the entire Autumn Season
Why Thanksgiving Flopped
For a country that’s 41% obese or morbidly obese, you’d think a holiday like Thanksgiving —whose sole purpose is to sit on your ass and eat carbs— would have more veneration and hold its own as a Holiday.
On the other hand, I get it. Thanksgiving really doesn’t have the marketing pizzazz of Christmas.
It’s on the 4th Thursday of the Month. Terrible Marketing . Should have been a 3 day weekend.
There are no songs.
There are no presents.
No mascot or characters to visit at the mall
Thanksgiving has become the undercard event to Christmas. It’s now an out-of-town, dry run for what will be the main event. At best, it’s a soft opening for Christmas to work out the kinks. It’s when you bring your new girlfriend to meet the family for the first time, pitch a life changing event, break the news you got kicked out school etc. etc. etc.
If it goes terribly wrong at least you can recover with some Christmas bribes gifts a month later.
So as we close the books for the year, count our PnL and do our bonus calculations, we remember the true spirit driving the Holiday inflation —- Money!
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Thoughts? Questions? Comments?
Reach out! Maybe I’ll do a full post on the topic or as a Q&A
