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->''But I'll take the sun and I'll take my kite,\\
Christmas on the beach, Christmas in July.''
-->-- '''SufjanStevens''', "Christmas in July"

We all know when Christmas is, right? Late in December, just after the beginning of winter, when it's always [[DreamingOfAWhiteChristmas covered in snow]], right? Wrong! Christmas happens in the summer, too. It's true, some people just can't wait to get into the [[TrueMeaningOfChristmas Christmas Spirit]]. So they decide to celebrate Christmas right there in the middle of July. Great concept, no?

This will often serve as the premise for {{Christmas Episode}}s in which the show takes place primarily in the summer. All the same plots, motifs, and messages of all other Christmas Episodes will still be present. In fact, expect all the characters to completely forget that it isn't actually Christmas at all.

There is some TruthInTelevision, as mentioned by [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_in_July That Other Wiki]]. Most holiday TV specials and movies are filmed during the summer season (so you're sweating like a pig...), and some stores do offer Christmas In July sales to get rid of all their old Christmas stock. The crafting community especially embraces Christmas in July, making all their wreaths, decorations and other Christmas crafts in July to either keep for themselves or sell at craft sales in November.

Of course, in the southern hemisphere, Christmas really ''does'' fall in midsummer, so UsefulNotes/ChristmasInAustralia is closely related.

Not to be confused with GreenChristmas.
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!!Examples:

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[[folder: Comic Books ]]

* The British comic ''{{Strangehaven}}'' is about a QuirkyTown with weird characters and traditions, such as celebrating Christmas in August. The legend is that the dying wish of a little child was to live to see Christmas, so they moved it up to August.

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[[folder: Film ]]

* The story "Christmas in July" from the horror anthology ''[=NightThirst=]'' has [[BadSanta a homicidal Santa]] who is inexplicably going about his business in the middle of summer.
* Variant: in ''Film/AlmostFamous'', one of the complaints William's sister raises before leaving home is that their mother celebrates Christmas in September to avoid consumerism.
* A ''SesameStreet'' ChristmasSpecial movie had Elmo wish it was Christmas every day. [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor He got his wish.]]

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[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* ''LizzieMcGuire'': Aaron Carter makes an appearance to shoot a Christmas themed music video in Lizzie's hometown. The Christmas theme is everywhere, even though it is nowhere near Christmas.
* All of the "Shop at Home" channels in the US (QVC, Home Shopping Network) air Christmas in July specials each year. It used to serve a more pragmatic purpose though. Many companies had long processing and delivery times ("Please allow six to eight weeks for delivery" was their mantra.) Usually when something was ordered in July, it would arrive in September or October, right about the time that Christmas shopping would start to trickle into people's minds.
* Played for laughs in ''ThePacific'', when Leckie returns from the hospital with presents for his friends.
-->'''Leckie:''' Tell Santa whether you've been naughty or nice.
-->'''Runner:''' The ''naughtiest.''
* An episode of ''TheBasilBrushShow'' has Basil make everyone throw a Christmas party for Molly to cheer her up even though it is the middle of summer. As luck would have it, Santa Claus is staying in the same apartment block Basil lives in.
* In ''TheStoryOfTracyBeaker'', the kids throw a Christmas party for Lol and Bouncer, believing that they are leaving the Dumping Ground, even though it's still summer.
* In a later episode of The Avengers (with Tara King), John Steed walks into a hostage situation because he is celebrating Christmas in the summer. It turns out he and his friend (whose house the killers have taken over) were in a POW camp in Asia and lost track of the date. Only later did they find out they had celebrated Christmas in summer and decided to make it an annual thing.

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[[folder: Manga and Anime ]]

* The second ''TenchiMuyo'' movie, ''Daughter of Darkness'', has the crew celebrating Mayuka's first Christmas in the summer at they very end of the movie. This was mostly because the Juraian equivalent, Starica, happened at that time. [[spoiler: It was also because Mayuka had been reborn after her death at the end.]]

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[[folder: Music ]]

* The majority of Christmas albums are released in the fall, which often means they're being recorded in the spring or summer. This can sometimes make it tricky for the recording artist to get into the "holiday spirit".

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[[folder: Radio ]]

* Creator/DrDemento has a regular "Christmas in July" episode, where he plays novelty [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Christmas songs in July]].
* In Maryland in the summer 2012, radio station 102.7 JackFm played Christmas music for a week straight.

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[[folder: Web Animation ]]

* Only ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'' could pull off [[http://www.hrwiki.org/wiki/Decemberween_In_July Decemberween In July]].

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[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* ''RudolphAndFrostysChristmasInJuly''
* ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'': No, not "Jingle Jingle Jangle". I am, of course, speaking of "Fa La La La Ed", in which Ed gets it in his mind that it's Christmas, although it's July. Of course, the idea spreads to the rest of the kids.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Ben 10}}'' did have a Christmas episode ''in the middle of summer vacation''. It involves the family discovering a portal to some Christmas World and the elves wanting Grandpa Max to be their new Santa.
* In ''GarfieldAndFriends'', {{Garfield}} pretends it's Christmas at the height of summer to take his mind off the sweltering heat. Jon and Odie join the spirit and decorate the house, confusing the neighbours, who then take it on. This snowballs until almost the entire city falls under the impression that it really is Christmas before City Hall makes an official declaration to the contrary.
* Creator/CartoonNetwork did Christmas in July marathons back in the 90's where they'd air a bunch of animated Christmas specials in July.
** ToonDisney did it as well (before Jetix came and [[NetworkDecay ruined everything]]).
** TV1 recently did a marathon of Christmas episodes from Series/{{Amen}}, GoodTimes, TheJeffersons, ADifferentWorld, and Series/LivingSingle.
** Creator/CartoonNetwork recently did a Christmas in July marathon again.
** LifetimeMovieNetwork used to commemorate the 4th of July with a marathon of Christmas movies.
* On the 2011's ''ChristmasSpecial'' of ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'', the boys decide to put on a traditional Family Christmas Special in the middle of Summer.
* In one episode of the ''WesternAnimation/SuperMarioWorld'' cartoon, Mario and Luigi introduce Christmas to the cave people to stop them from quarreling, despite it being the middle of August. Mario justifies it by saying the cave people don't know any better.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/BackToTheFuture TheAnimatedSeries'', the Brown family and Marty decided to visit late 1800's London during Christmas to beat the heat of the present time.
* The animated ''PunkyBrewster'' series had an episode called "Christmas In July." Glomer, claiming to know Santa personally, takes Punky and her pals to the North Pole workshop in July only to find Santa's on vacation. The kids manage to flummox Santa's toy-making assembly line, prompting him to return early to set things right.

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[[folder: Real Life ]]

* RealLife: in the southern hemisphere, the actual Christmas is in the summer.
** Australian ex-pats living in the Northern Hemisphere will do this. One newspaper report had one of them commenting that "December doesn't feel like Christmas at all. It's too cold and snowy."

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