Let me paint a picture for you:
You're having a wonderful time with your group of friends listening to some tasteful music in your room as you slowly wind down from an agonizing day of college lectures and terrible dining hall food. That's when the next song comes on, the Mariah Carey classic “All I Want for Christmas is You.”
The room goes dead silent, as if a vacuum has sucked all the previous joy and happiness from relaxation after a long day out of the room. Everyone looks at each other, glancing back and forth anxiously and wondering what to do.
Is the first week of November too early to start listening to some beloved Christmas melodies? Do you skip the song? Do you let it play? Do you smash the speaker, gather up the pieces, burn them outside in the cold and later bury the ashes? Fear not, reader, for there is a new holiday music sheriff in these parts that goes by the name of Drew Haughn, and his decree is only after Thanksgiving can you play Christmas music; anything earlier means you might as well be a psychopath.
I have written opinion pieces for The Post about what sauce to compliment fried chicken, why the cleaning staff deserves more respect and why there are too many deer in Athens, Ohio. But this topic commands way more attention and focus in my opinion, because it is such an ageless debate. Now, I used to be like many of you joyful folks out there who start listening to Christmas music after Halloween. Heck, sometimes I would throw on “Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!” by Dean Martin in late February when we would get a light dusting of powder in central Ohio.
But more recently I have come around to the after-Thanksgiving rule because of my music-listening tendencies. I listen to music every day, while I study, while I game and when I drive. I pick songs that I like at the moment and that I will enjoy fully experiencing with whatever I am doing. But because of the availability offered by Spotify and Apple Music in today's world, more and more people are abusing this power and listening to songs for months on end (myself included). After a while, the songs fade away in your selection as you tire of the melody or how it sounds.
The same applies to Christmas music. But Christmas music is really only played around Christmas time, so to experience and pick songs that fit the moment you have to be closer to Christmas itself.
Starting too early, such as right after Halloween for example, could potentially burn you out and wear you out of the holiday music listening mood.
We don't want you to smash your grandma's phone through the window because she played “All I Want for Christmas is You” by Justin Bieber (great cover, by the way) weeks before Christmas. She won’t know that you have been listening to your holiday music playlist since October, and you’ve already gotten fed up with Justin’s soothing tone when you decide to take out her phone with a well-placed toss.
In the end, all I ask is that you consider good timing to start listening to the tunes of the season and think about what could happen if you start too early.
Drew is a freshman studying communications at Ohio University. Please note that the opinions expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect those of The Post. Want to Talk to Drew about his article? Tweet him @haughn_drew24.
