With the leaves crunching on the ground and the first snow upon us, one can’t help but to feel the changing of the seasons. The crisp in the air, the frost on the grass; it's that time of the year. And now that the first of November has come and gone, the yearly Christmas debate is among us.
Considering I saw my first Christmas commercial before Halloween, it is clear that some individuals aren’t exactly easing into the holiday. For some, the tree is up, and Michael Bublé’s “It’s Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas” is in the queue. While I may not agree with beginning the festivities this soon, I do however find it fascinating to see how people's emotions are really driven by this debate, and in learning about people’s opinions, I’ve formed one of my own.
As Regis announces its date for the annual Christmas tree lighting and the festivities to accompany it, students are conflicted. Is November 15th too soon to be celebrating Christmas?
Well, considering the disaster that was last year and the fact that we didn’t even have a Christmas tree lighting, the opinions are mixed to say the least. One sophomore (who wished to stay anonymous) stated that she was, “thrilled to finally have the chance to experience the feelings of Christmas on a college campus.” She continued to say, “With the anxieties of finals approaching; it will be refreshing to take a few steps back, listen to some fun Christmas music, and to experience the holiday season with friends.”
On the contrary, junior Sammy Vrkljan stated, “I don’t like it because it’s pre-Thanksgiving, but it is pretty to see.” These conflicting opinions display how this debate gives rise to some serious emotion here on the Regis campus, so I took this topic to social media and the results were astonishing.
For reasons unknown, this conflict of celebration, the to-or-not-to dive into Christmas before Thanksgiving, has many individuals frustrated. In fact, this debate made it into the walls of my own, undecorated apartment and my roommate, Sammy Vrkljan, put it simply: “It’s not time yet, what about Thanksgiving?”
While I can agree that Thanksgiving deserves more recognition than it gets, I can’t help but wonder what the real issue is here. Apparently that opinion alone puts me in the minority of what most Regis students believe.
I’d like to say that my more opposite and more lenient opinion is in the majority, but it most definitely is not. My support of people’s pre-Thanksgiving Christmas enthusiasm is in the extreme minority, as I came to find out in my quest for answers. I took this debate to my Instagram story, to get a sense of what the people around me (besides my roommates) were thinking, the results were surprising to say the least.
While some people simply voted in favor or not of Christmas festivities pre-Thanksgiving; I had a lot of people DM me with an intensity that surprised me very much. One Regis student put it like this, “celebrating Christmas pre-Thanksgiving should be a crime, it’s insensitive.”
All in all, I’ve come to find out that I have a more liberal opinion on the subject and that this opinion is in the minority of how Regis students feel about Christmas before Thanksgiving. Maybe it's because my views stem from my thinking that Thanksgiving dinner can be well accompanied with Christmas music, or because I gravitate to the feelings of family and friendship that Christmas evokes, and I listen to the music to remind me of how close that experience is. Either way, I don’t see the harm in people getting overly enthusiastic and bumping up the season a few weeks. So, if you want to rock a cozy Christmas sweater or jam out to a Christmas bop at the next open mic night, know that I’m no Grinch and I’m in full support of it.
