Everybody loves Christmas. The food, the gifts, the celebrations, but it seems to be getting earlier and earlier every year. Why?
Firstly, Christmas has been commercialised a lot over the past few years, because companies need money after Summer. During the Summer months, supermarkets have nothing to sell. There are no special occasions to sell decorations for and everyone has spent money on holidays, so aren't around to shop as much. This means that when Summer's over and everyone's back to work or school, Supermarkets can't wait to put mince pies on their shelves. A supermarket in Streatham had its mince pies out in September! However, studies have shown that putting Christmas decorations and food on the shelves earlier doesn't incentivise people to buy anything earlier than they would normally. But for some reason, companies keep selling Christmas to us earlier every year.
Secondly, the pandemic. The world was pretty bleak three years ago. COVID-19 had cast a shadow on the whole year, so Christmas was a pocket of 2020 where we had something to celebrate. So, it was understandable that people may want to put their tree up a bit earlier, or start listening to Christmas songs before they normally would. However, it continued. 2021, 2022, and now 2023, have all been victim to early Christmas. You could say this is because of the cost of living, so people want something to look forward to in a country with too many problems to count on your hands, but the crisis started in late 2021, so you would think people are getting used to it now. It's awful that we have to 'get used to' high food prices and higher bills, but it's been like this for years, so it's not an excuse for early Christmas anymore.
So, why has Christmas gotten earlier? Well, we don't really know. Supermarkets are definitely to blame, and so are radio stations (I don't need to hear the same song hundreds of times in the span of three weeks). But if one thing is for sure, it proves that the British people just want something to look forward to in the terrible state we find ourselves in. Vita Cassidy said that it is 'so that companies can capitalise on the holiday... so that they can make more profit'. But what do you think? Why do you think that Christmas is getting earlier every year, and when will you be sticking on the Christmas tunes?