Holiday Creep

There are still too many warm, muggy days for my taste, but September signs of fall are everywhere. Leaves edge toward red, orange, and gold, the nights feel chillier, and stores in my area are beginning the Christmas creep.

That’s what it’s called. Christmas creep. That’s when Christmas decorations and merchandise start appearing on retail shelves in early dribs and drabs. You may be buying Halloween candy when you hear your first Christmas carol of the year.

This isn’t a surprise. Commercial Christmas prep sped up years ago. For most merchants, the winter holiday season provides a major hunk of annual sales, so why not begin the spending reminders early? That’s especially true of a year like this one, where Thanksgiving falls late enough to leave only about four shopping weeks before Christmas. I could be irritated (Crass Commercialism!!!), but the fact is, I don’t really care. In fact, I kind of like it.

I’m not alone. Studies show that experiencing early decorations for the winter holidays spikes dopamine, the “reward” hormone that makes us feel good. The sparkling lights and colorful displays, the music we hear only seasonally … all of this helps us feel better than we did before. It makes sense that the early-decorating trend would spread beyond retail to homes.

Winter holidays bring the promise of light in the darkness, no matter what the odds. In a world filled with anxiety and sadness, that can lift beyond dopamine. Hope is the ultimate hygge.

This doesn’t explain the intensification of Halloween.

Halloween candy started hitting the shelves in mid-August, which is also when Spirit Halloween stores start popping up in retail spaces with nothing else to do. As with Christmas, early Halloween prep has seeped into non-commercial settings as well. I passed my first Halloween-decorated home about two weeks ago. (I’m not including my neighborhood giant skeleton, which stays up all year round and fulfills the apparently recent requirement that every neighborhood have one.)

Last year, there was more decorating for Halloween in my neighborhood than I could remember ever seeing before. I’m not talking charming, feel-good, “Welcome, Fall” stuff. I’m not even talking Mysterious Gothic. I’m talking blood, guts, and more fear than should ever fit into one yard. (Full disclosure: my “Scary Meter” doesn’t rise above those little floaty ghosts made from tissues and attached to tree branches.)

So, why do we do THAT thing? It seems so anti-hygge.

Our senses are heightened when we’re afraid and, once again, our brain releases dopamine. The key is knowing that no matter how scared (or grossed out) we may feel, we are safe. Deep inside, we know that after the scary experience ends, we will be fundamentally okay.

I’m guessing that unlike real life, the chemical rush of all that blood and gore puts us in a situation we believe we can actually control.

Maybe we start decorating early because we want to absorb every possible high from a time of year that lifts us out of the ordinary and into something magical. After all, the holidays themselves pass quickly. It doesn’t take long after Halloween for us to mentally finish with fall and jump into winter celebrations. As for Christmas, by the time New Year’s Day rolls around, most of us wish those same decorations that brought so much joy would just pack themselves away so that we can move on to organizing for the new year.

But that’s okay. At that point, the beginning creep of the next holiday season is only seven months away.