Why Its Acceptable to Celebrate Christmas in November

As the Holiday season is back into full swing, and with Thanksgiving just around the corner, the question every year is, “Is it ok to celebrate Christmas and overlook other holidays like thanksgiving?” every year, many Americans start their Christmas traditions as early as a day after Halloween.

There are shipping delays due to covid and more people shopping online then ever before. Ports all around the US have been blocked up for months and are predicted to get worse going into the holiday season. That being said, holidays shoppers are now having to shop earlier and earlier to keep up with the backup. When starting your shopping in early November, it is hard to shop for Christmas decorations and presents without being in the Christmas spirit.

One example of that is Christmas music. A great amount of Christmas celebrations revolve around the music. However the same cannot be said for Thanksgiving. There are little to no thanksgiving songs that can get anyone in any type of holiday spirit.

There is also a correlation to the amount of movie both holidays produce. Christmas movies have embedded themselves in the history and culture of Christmas both in the US and around the world. Since the first Christmas movie, “Santa Claus” (1898), hit the theaters, countless movies have been made to celebrate the magical season. Movies like “Home alone”, “the Grinch”, and “Die Hard” are all examples of near perfect Christmas movies. Thanksgiving on the other hand does not produce nearly as many movies as its holiday counterpart. With the exception of the Charlie Brown movie, there are almost no Thanksgiving movies that have made any dent in the box office or the heart of movie enthusiasts.

One of the biggest traditions of the Thanksgiving day, is the Macys Thanksgiving day parade. This parade makes an estimate of over forty-million dollars a year off of ad revenue. What is ironic about the “Thanksgiving” parade is how they advertise Christmas items, gifts, movies, music, etc for the entire show. It even goes as far as to make Santa  the main attraction at the end. The parade has nothing to do with thanksgiving and everything to do with advertising Christmas. When your main attraction for the highlight of thanksgiving is Santa, it just shows how normalized it is to celebrate Christmas instead of focusing on Thanksgiving.

Lastly, Thanksgiving promotes unhealthy and even binge eating. One thanksgiving night is equivalent to a whole weeks worth of calories. With America ranking in the top 20s for obesity rates, holidays that make a significance on binge eating is very unhealthy. Along with the amount of time for preparation just for a 20 minute dinner is a waist of time and unnecessary.

Christmas however, promotes more than food for celebration. Activities like singing and dancing can burn calories to a healthy level. The average American can burn over 5 calories a minute while dancing. Thanksgiving promotes an unhealthy lifestyle, has no good movies, has no music related to the holiday, and almost all of the celebrations backpack off of the Christmas season.