When is the Christmas Season?
The Christmas season is a topic of debate, celebration and broad definition. No other holiday has a “season” associated with it quite like Christmas.
Just as the date of December 25th is declared fake (as discussed in a recent episode of The Christmas Show on My Merry Christmas) the actual date associated with “the Christmas season” is not actually known.
Take, for example, the world of retail. They sell the stuff of Christmas in advance of the season, so it makes sense that dates for them run in advance of when people actually celebrate the season. Usually, stores start selling the merchandise of Christmas in August, even though this causes many to complain. Some call this “Christmas creep”, but how are people to prepare for Christmas if they can’t buy the stuff until it is in season?
But even celebrating “the season” seems to be open to interpretation.
For some, it’s right after Halloween. After all, that is when Santa shows up ready to take pictures and put the kiddos on his lap. It’s also the time when most radio stations flip the switch and, ironically, when most musical artists release their latest Christmas stuff.
Celebrating the season is also more than buying things or decorating. It’s also about doing stuff. Christmas concerts, plays and shows need weeks to be viewed.
If you trust AI in a search engine – and you never should – they would have you believe “The Christmas Season” begins right after Thanksgiving. AI only says that because for some people that IS the start of the Christmas season. Black Friday may largely be a thing of the past – at least the part about showing up at Penney’s at 5am – but it is still a starting gun for candy canes, Christmas trees and ho,ho,ho.
Christmas just takes time.
After all, there are letters to write to Santa, cards to get into the mail, trees to cut down and decorate, and gifts to wrap and put under the tree. No wonder we need a season to fit it all in.
Internationally Christmas is a date on the calendar that begins the season but it is not the climax of it. It is in traditional circles the first of the Twelve Days of Christmas. Those following this centuries old pattern celebrate through Three Kings Day on January 6th — or later.
And still for others the Christmas celebration never begins or ends. Right here on My Merry Christmas we have for decades celebrated the “Christmas countdown” all year long.
Just as traditions around the world vary so too do the definitions of the Christmas season. So why then are there debates?
After all, Jesus could only be born once. And even if scholars cannot agree on the day or even the time of year he was actually born “the season” marks the time we do it. Why have a season at all when one day of Christmas ought to do it, according to the most practical among us?
A good argument can be made for everything that has become associated with Christmas. It just can’t fit into just a day.
I mean, it can take months just to make a proper fruitcake. Rome wasn’t built in a day and it takes a lot longer than that to put lights on it. It took Joseph and Mary up to a week to get from Nazareth to Bethlehem.
Not even Santa can get around the world in a day, it takes at least 30 hours for him to deliver to each time zone on Christmas Eve.
Christmas was never meant for a day. That’s why you can get eggnog in October and nobody thinks you’re weird for having your tree up in mid-November.
It’s Christmas. It’s a season. And it’s all good.
