Halloween was barely cold in its grave, but nevertheless, radio stations everywhere began playing the tunes of another holiday within the first week of November. That holiday is Christmas. 

Celebrating the Christmas season early is normalized in the U.S. Stores of every shape and size began rolling out the Christmas-themed fake trees, decorations and candy weeks before kids would walk house to house screaming “trick or treat!” Even Mother Nature seemed to be pushing the holiday spirit on all of us early, as she blanketed a decent portion of the U.S. with white snow on Halloween. 

There are several reasons why it is not acceptable to play Christmas music this early. Christmas music should be played no earlier than midnight Friday Nov. 29.

Listen to Christmas music starting on Black Friday.

It makes the year feel shorter

Playing Christmas music early makes the year fly by quicker. People are still coming to terms with the fact that summer is over and the warm weather is behind us. Everyone is still adapting to fall, not that it’s felt like fall at all this year, and thanks to the current weather temperatures it feels like winter is already here. Playing Christmas music just accelerates the passage of time, when we should all be enjoying the fall season instead of rushing toward the holidays.

It causes stress

Playing Christmas music early can also stress some people out. There’s a lot that comes with the upcoming holiday season: making travel plans, party planning, Christmas shopping for friends, family and significant others and busier work hours among other things. It can be a very stressful time. For some people, listening to Christmas music brings on stress as it leads people to think about all they have to do to prepare for the holidays, clinical psychologist Linda Blair said. There’s no need for people to be stressing about Christmas midway through November.

It insults Thanksgiving

It’s also worth mentioning that families haven’t sat down for Thanksgiving dinner yet. I don’t want to hear Christmas music before I’ve had some turkey, accompanied by a side of mashed potatoes glazed with a pool of gravy, with cornbread and asparagus. I especially don’t want to hear Christmas music before I’ve had my mom’s apple and pumpkin pies, or my aunt’s raspberry pretzel jello. Dessert is important. We should all be as stuffed as a turkey and watching some football before being subjected to listening to those tunes.

It pressures people to celebrate early

When some people begin hearing Christmas tunes, they feel the need to decorate their homes to match the music. They even feel the need to dress themselves up with Christmas-themed clothing. A common article of clothing is the ugly Christmas sweater. It’s bad enough people wear them around the holidays when it’s appropriate, even though it can be fun sometimes. It looks much worse in November.

Regardless of what I think, Christmas music will likely continue to be played well before it’s appropriate. If Christmas music can be played early, then we should start giving Christmas gifts early, because in the words of Mariah Carey, “I don’t want a lot for Christmas, there is just one thing I need.”

All I want for Christmas is to enjoy my Thanksgiving with not one jingle bell in sight.