This is a goofy topic, but when is it ok to start listening to Christmas music?

I usually do for a few weeks in the summer when the heat is getting to me. And I've started listening a lot now, usually I wait until November 1st to feel like I'm not a complete idiot.

How about you guys?

Heard it in the Target today...this is too early for it to be forced on us!

I really, really hate that Christmas has gotten so commercialized that they are shoving it down our throats starting in late October. Yes, I realize it is now Nov., but I saw Christmas decor up in the village in Oct. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy Christmas and the Christmas season, but starting it in OCTOBER? Really? I long for the days when October was Halloween and you celebrated that, then November was reserved for Thanksgiving. Then the day after Thanksgiving thoughts turned to Christmas. Next year I am sure Christmas will start in September and soon after that, companies will just drop all pretexts and just have Christmas around all year.

To get back to AC's question, there is never a bad time for it, at least if it is the timeless stuff. I've got an iPod playlist that randomly gathers the top-rated music from my collection. I don't bother to have it exclude holiday music, because it's always nice to hear Brian Setzer lay down some boogie woogie Christmas, or Sarah McLachlin sing Silent Night, or Peanuts Christmas, or even the occasional Sesame Street Christmas song (yes, that's a fun album). It's never a concentrated bunch, but the occasional surprise holiday song is nice to hear (as long as I'm not doing a workout - I learned that lesson and have built a separate random playlist for that that's much more targeted; Sesame Street doesn't mix with weightlifting, believe it or not).

I say Christmas music shouldn't be on the radio in concentrated (i.e., the all-Christmas-all-the-time stations) until after the ides of November. Let's get past any election and Veterans Day before laying on the schmaltz.

The day after Thanksgiving.

You can listen to it whenever you want to as long as you have the music.

I think it is forced when the stores are playing even before it is Halloween and it is still hot outside. The Christmas season used to seem more important when it did not start until the day after Thanksgiving. The old traditions included seeing the decorations in the windows ot the downtown Foley's back when most serious shopping was done on Main Street in Houston before the shopping centers were built.

ArmyChick07 Wrote:This is a goofy topic, but when is it ok to start listening to Christmas music?

I usually do for a few weeks in the summer when the heat is getting to me. And I've started listening a lot now, usually I wait until November 1st to feel like I'm not a complete idiot.

How about you guys?

I was in a Lowes on OCTOBER 1 and heard Christmas music. I looked around me and realized they also had Christmas merch for sale. Earliest I've ever seen/heard.

My neighborhood Lowes put Christmas merchandise out the week after Labor day -- at the same time they put out the Halloween stuff. I'm sure it was the result of some efficiency expert report.

I listen to The Nutcracker (whole ballet) in summertime occasionally -- but as ballet music, not Christmas. Anyone can listen to Christmas music any old time s/he feels like it... but personally, I wish the stores would lay off it 'til after Thanksgiving. (This is partially because IMO Thanksgiving is the best holiday in the world ever: no gifts, no cards, no none of that business, just a 4-day weekend to cook a bunch of good food and then eat it!)

My favorite album is Elvis's Xmas album... But BB King can lay down some sweet holiday tunes, too.

You haven't heard the 12 days of Christmas until you hear the Sesame Street gang sing it. Then again, you've probably never heard someone make a recipe for fruitcake until you hear Raiford from the John Boy and Billy show try to make his. OK, enough of that.

Somebody called in to Sunny 99.1 to ask when they were starting the Christmas music all the time thingy they do. I don't know why anyone would WANT that much holiday pop, and this is comign from someone who ADORES traditional Christmas carols...

The traditional Christmas carols have meaning attached (birth of Christ). The holiday pop is about feeling good about being cold and buying things, etc.

stompclapwhoosh Wrote:Somebody called in to Sunny 99.1 to ask when they were starting the Christmas music all the time thingy they do. I don't know why anyone would WANT that much holiday pop, and this is comign from someone who ADORES traditional Christmas carols...

75Owl Wrote:The traditional Christmas carols have meaning attached (birth of Christ). The holiday pop is about feeling good about being cold and buying things, etc.

stompclapwhoosh Wrote:Somebody called in to Sunny 99.1 to ask when they were starting the Christmas music all the time thingy they do. I don't know why anyone would WANT that much holiday pop, and this is comign from someone who ADORES traditional Christmas carols...

Ah, I knew that's why I preferred Mariah Carey's "All I want for Christmas"

75Owl Wrote:The traditional Christmas carols have meaning attached (birth of Christ). The holiday pop is about feeling good about being cold and buying things, etc.

stompclapwhoosh Wrote:Somebody called in to Sunny 99.1 to ask when they were starting the Christmas music all the time thingy they do. I don't know why anyone would WANT that much holiday pop, and this is comign from someone who ADORES traditional Christmas carols...

FWIW, just to make this all weirder, I'm Jewish :)

I really enjoy the Jesus Christmas carols (aka: traditional) and while I do enjoy some of the other stuff (the newer it gets, the less likely I am to like it), I wish they would play more of the Jesus stuff on the radio. I mean, why do we celebrate Christmas, really? Don't get me wrong, I am not trying to exclude anyone, and I do enjoy that Christmas is getting a little more inclusive, but at the same time, I want to remember what this all really about. I can't say I am the "model" Christian (very liberal and Catholic too), but I do what I can when I can.

Not Christian. Self-proclaimed Godless demonchild... But still like Xmas AND Elvis gospel music.

ArmyChick07 Wrote:Not Christian. Self-proclaimed Godless demonchild... But still like Xmas AND Elvis gospel music.

EVIL!! Evil!! But sexy.

stompclapwhoosh Wrote:

75Owl Wrote:The traditional Christmas carols have meaning attached (birth of Christ). The holiday pop is about feeling good about being cold and buying things, etc.

stompclapwhoosh Wrote:Somebody called in to Sunny 99.1 to ask when they were starting the Christmas music all the time thingy they do. I don't know why anyone would WANT that much holiday pop, and this is comign from someone who ADORES traditional Christmas carols...

FWIW, just to make this all weirder, I'm Jewish :)

"Some people think Ebeneezer Scrooge is.
Well, he's not.
But guess who is...
All three Stooges!"

Adam Sandler
The Chanukah Song

JSA Wrote:

stompclapwhoosh Wrote:

75Owl Wrote:The traditional Christmas carols have meaning attached (birth of Christ). The holiday pop is about feeling good about being cold and buying things, etc.

stompclapwhoosh Wrote:Somebody called in to Sunny 99.1 to ask when they were starting the Christmas music all the time thingy they do. I don't know why anyone would WANT that much holiday pop, and this is comign from someone who ADORES traditional Christmas carols...

FWIW, just to make this all weirder, I'm Jewish :)

"Some people think Ebeneezer Scrooge is.
Well, he's not.
But guess who is...
All three Stooges!"

Adam Sandler
The Chanukah Song

Now THAT is a holiday song we can all love!