Editorial: Too Early for ‘Merry Christmas!’?

*Psychological priming: the phenomenon in which exposure to a stimulus influences a person's subsequent response to another stimulus, often without conscious awareness. 

Hear those jingling bells ringing? The holiday season is upon us! And, we wish you a Merry Christmas!  

Too soon for all that? Not really. 

The magical Winter Wonderland season of jolly Saint Nick, Christmas carols, sugar cookies, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, family holiday traditions, Christmas tree decorating – and especially gift-shopping mania – has officially begun in the United States.

It all starts just after America’s star-spangled, super-patriotic Fourth of July celebrations – following months of psychological priming* by advertisers and retailers on themes pumping up the patriotic spirit of Memorial Day barbequing and the launch of the summer holiday travel season. 

Almost immediately after July 4th, however – as most students and teachers are trying to decompress from a stressful school year – American consumers begin to fall prey to “Back to School” propaganda insidiously interwoven into these summer-themed shopping messages and designed to trigger panic shopping in anxious parents and image-conscious students. 

After all, what could be worse than a first-day-of-school without a year’s worth of college-ruled paper, a set of jumbo erasers, and a new package of subject folders? Or, even – horror of horrors – wearing clothes to school people actually saw you in a few weeks ago in June? 

By mid-July – as many Americans grow weary of sweltering summer heat and the challenges of balancing their work lives with having kids home for the summer – advertising messaging turns toward more overt references to fall being “just around the corner,” enticing fashion-conscious shoppers with exciting autumnal rollouts and Halloween-themed pumpkin-spice lattes.

By early August, entire aisles in grocery stores suddenly feature Halloween candies (loaded with enough preservatives to still be “fresh” by October 31), Starbucks compels their caffeine-addicted baristas to shift out all the mega-corporation's tired summer-themed high-sugar iced and creamy fare, to launch their full-bore trajectory into the divine mysteries of the fall season and the complete PSL (pumpkin spice latte) Lifestyle.  

By late September – even before Halloween arrives – retailers and advertisers have already subtly introduced Christmas and winter holiday-themed psychological enticements into their “Holiday season is just around the corner!” messaging. Now, the Salvation Army's volunteers are appearing at grocery store entrances, encouraging donations, and priming consumers into the "holiday spirit."

Despite unseasonably high outdoor temperatures in the 80s or 90s, car commercials featuring proud husbands gifting new cars, thoughtfully wrapped in massive sparkling red gift bows (which don't actually exist in real life) start popping up more subtly, while jingoistic retail outlets such as Home Depot have already stocked unaesthetic, two-story, plastic inflatable Abominable Snowmen, Santa's reindeers and somber plastic creches, perched high above their over-stocked new loads of snow shovels – another way to prime shoppers' minds into panic purchasing. In a tribute to the joys of the season, these snow shovels are constructed with only a single connecting screw, ensuring the devices will last but a single joyous holiday season, and new snow shovels for the winter will be on sale next September.

On Halloween morning – not even the day after Halloween – a new crop of seasonal employees, just like Santa’s little elves, can be seen in every shopping location scurrying frenetically to replace all references to Halloween with full-out Christmas and holiday messaging, forcing many grown-up last-minute Halloween candy shoppers to offer Christmas-themed candies to unsuspecting trick-or-treaters.

From late September through Christmas Day, December 25, businesses pull out every stop in their psychological priming arsenal to condition Americans into fear-induced panic purchasing of every holiday-themed product, ranging over all major sectors of the American economy. And each year, the nation is encouraged patriotically to boost American consumer spending – and the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) – by consumers' generous holiday season purchasing.

Even America’s original holiday, Thanksgiving, is co-opted into a rehearsal and staging event for the all-out holiday season. Black Friday sales lure Americans away from their family dinners designed simply to “give thanks,” in order to take full advantage of “special” – and largely bogus – Christmas and holiday deals. In addition to Black Friday, now a host of righteous new shopping-mania triggers have popped up – from Small Business Saturday, to Cyber Monday, to Giving Tuesday, to Amazon Prime Day (or is it Prime Week?), ad infinitum. 

In addition to the garish and ubiquitous color-driven Christmas and holiday-themed prompts deployed by businesses to reduce consumers’ resistance to impulse and fear-based purchasing, every commercial space is infused with the most potent psychological shopping triggers ever designed – nostalgic Christmas and holiday-themed canned music, perfectly suited to bore earworm jingles deep into vulnerable consumers’ skulls as they rationalize ever more zombie-like holiday purchasing.

But, the Christmas and holiday season doesn’t just end there. It’s capped off immediately by New Year’s celebrations with all of their shopping-based indulgences. By then, of course – despite the post-holiday exhaustion of many American consumers who are formulating resolutions to clean up their lives and "live simply" – retailers have quickly introduced plenty of pink, lots of heart-shaped chocolate boxes, and much romantic advertising, because February 14, Valentine’s Day, is “just around the corner!” 

And who could begrudge a bit of romance? Or, would dare to neglect the ones you love?

But, with Valentine’s Day, many Americans have been primed to sense that, following the darkest days of winter, the delightful season of spring is soon to arrive! After all, St. Patrick’s Day, Mardi Gras, Easter, Mother's Day, and Father's Day are just a few weeks away. And, now, all the bright and colorful spring fashions sparkle and entice in shop windows, replacing all that depressing winter garb.

And before you know it, it'll be May 31, and we'll be patriotically grilling to commemorate the nation's fallen on Memorial Day! And, like Pavlov's dogs, patriotic barbequing will have us all psychologically primed to look ahead to our nation's Independence Day, July 4th, auguring in America's Christmas season once again.

So, a belated Merry Christmas, to all who celebrate, and Happy Holidays!

By Christopher Jones