It’s Never Too Early for Christmas Music

An explanation of my music habits as a self-proclaimed Christmas addict

By: Erica Bouska

Does Taylor Swift’s song “Lover” count as a Christmas song? For those who don’t know, it starts with “we could leave the Christmas lights up till January.” And this year, it kicked off my Christmas music listening in mid-October.

I come from a family that treats Christmas as its glory season. Each year, our house is so colorful it looks like a gingerbread house, and we have four full-sized trees. With themes. 

Christmas music has always been a constant for me in December and late November. But when I went to college, everything changed.

Now I don’t set up trees with my mom for Thanksgiving or hang up outdoor lights with my dad before the first snowfall. Now I don’t go caroling with my high school band at retirement homes. Now I don’t drive through my small town, surrounded by trees covered in soft white lights.

It was jarring freshman year. The next year it was hardly bearable since I spent most of December alone in my apartment. Christmas music became a way to curate the warm, family feelings I associate with the holiday.

Admittedly, mid-October is early, even for me. But there is something about “Lover” that invokes the same warm glow of Christmas music. 

I prefer older Christmas music from crooners like Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole, and Ella Fitzgerald. The rhythms and instrumentation remind me of singing the same classic songs at the top of my lungs with my cousins when I was ten. It makes me think of hot chocolate and snowman building contests and hoping for a fresh snowfall on Christmas Eve. 

I know some people see Christmas as an over-commercialized scam built for capitalism that serves to repress other religious holidays. But for me, Christmas will always be the season when both sides of my family get together without excuses. We step aside from our work and school lives, push past political differences, and try anything to make my grandma laugh uncontrollably. 

I have already put up my Christmas decorations, and Dean Martin’s “Silver Bells” has been stuck in my head for weeks. To me, it is never too early to listen to Christmas music because it’s a connection to home.