Bah Humbug: Why I dislike Christmas season

Bryce Lepkowski, Staff Writer
December 7, 2022

Let me start by saying that I celebrate Christmas. I’m not saying that the holiday itself is bad, or that people who celebrate Christmas are wrong in any way. However, for many reasons, I dislike the Christmas season. 

We can’t even decide when the Christmas season officially begins. Many insist it starts right after Halloween. Others say wait until after Thanksgiving. A few wait until December.

That means, however, that these discussions happen for two full months, sometimes more, before Christmas even happens. In many of my classes, I have heard non-stop debates over Christmas  – what lights people prefer, the best Christmas movie, their favorite Christmas song, the superior Christmas food – and all of the heat around the holiday makes me sick of hearing about it before it even begins.

Most the debates are silly, but there are some serious issues. While there is a rise in overall generosity – volunteerism in the US increases around 50% during November and December – there are also many sources of anxiety during the holiday season. 

The American Psychological Association (APA) reported that stress among people in the LGBTQ community increases by 38% around Christmas. Surveys conducted from US News and World Report concluded that around 42% of people expect to go into financial debt due to the expectations of gifts and travel for the holiday Additionally, retail workers face long hours  due to the shopping increase during the holiday season.

Despite the anxieties, Christmas also takes away from so many other things during the winter months. 

Christmas music is played on most mainstream radio stations, and it dominates over American music consumers. However, it’s rare for these stations to play songs from other religious holidays, such as Hanukkah, and therefore seem to ignore so many Americans.

Similarly, mainstream television networks primarily focus on running Christmas movies  during December. There are hundreds of Christmas movies in existence, and so few Hanukkah movies. Again, showing how discriminatory mainstream media can be towards people of religions other than Christian.  

Almost all of my classes have brought up Christmas so far this year, as have advertisements, social media sites, and more. All of this attention towards a singular holiday isolates people of other religions from being able to hold religious freedom, and not hear about a holiday that holds no value to them. 

While I recognize that Christmas is a time of joy for many people, it statistically brings not only stress but several other issues to the world. 

With more consumerism taking place, there’s more waste going to landfills and causing more problems for the environment. Whether it happens by gift shopping from fast-fashion distributors or from millions of people discarding wrapping paper, Christmas causes an influx of around 100 million  trash bags to be sent to landfills and leads to wasting about $78 million of food each year. 

Christmas can also lead to severe health issues because of overeating, overspending, and overworking. Many people face more depressive struggles during the season as well due to the high expectations brought on by family, friends, and the media. Many studies have found spikes of cardiac issues and overall death rates during Christmas due to constant activity and larger crowds of people to spread bacteria. 

This gross consumerism surrounding one religious holiday has caused many problems in the past, and will seemingly continue to generate them in the future. Since media coverage focuses on the aesthetic of the Christmas seasons during the last few months of the year, so many global issues and personal orientations are overlooked. So while I will celebrate Christmas this year, I am not going to spend my time observing it in the weeks preceding it, but will instead focus on the other situations and people around me.