History Main / ChristmasCreep

** In the same vein, fruitcake is pretty much a year-round item, as are ANZAC biscuits (which, as their name would suggest, tend to become more prominent around [[ANZAC Day UsefulNotes/AustralianHolidays]].) Mincemeat pies may or may not be year-round, depending on individual retailer.

[[caption-width-right:350:The ''Peanuts'' gang witnessing Christmas in '''April.'''\\

* Many commercial radio stations in the US will play nothing but ChristmasSongs throughout November and December, a phenomenon that (as with a lot of the rest of ChristmasCreep) really took off in earnest around the TurnOfTheMillennium. Prior to this, stations that played Christmas music would generally do so only on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, or at the most, sporadically starting after Thanksgiving and eventually with more added the week of Christmas, when holiday-themed songs begin falling into the regular rotation. When it does come to Dec. 24-25, usually those stations that hold out on playing a 24-hour Christmas song playlist will switch, with either pre-recorded or satellite-fed programming played, as well as some songs selected from the playlist that's pre-recorded. Some stations still use live talent on Christmas Day, but more often than not the voices will be voice-tracked, recorded a few days earlier, or simply the music will be played without interruption. Then in the mid-to-late 1990s or so, stations in larger markets began an "all-Christmas" format shortly after Thanksgiving, with adult contemporary stations the most likely to change their format; since then, nearly every market has at least one "all Christmas" station. Sometimes, the format switch will take place as early as late October (a ''full two months'' before the holiday). This has become much more prevalent since 2001, when the aftermath of the September 11th attacks led to listeners wanting to hear LighterAndSofter programming.

** WEZW-FM, a soft AC station serving the Atlantic City-Cape May area in New Jersey, has become notorious for going all-Christmas well before Halloween, typically making the switch around the middle of October.

** One station parodied this trope by playing Christmas songs on Labor Day (first Monday in September) just to claim they got there first. Then they returned to their regular programming the next day and didn't play any more Christmas songs until November.

Prior to TheEighties, the Christmas retail season in the U.S. didn't start until after Thanksgiving Day (although Christmas catalogs for Sears, JC Penney, etc. were being mailed out as early as August at least as far back as TheSeventies). The Friday after Thanksgiving was the default kick-off to the Christmas shopping season, and stores responded with big sales on that day, which has come to be known as Black Friday. The earliest known reference to this name dates to 1961 in Philadelphia, because of the huge traffic jams and crowds of shoppers. The phrase took on a darker meaning in TheNineties, following several incidents where shoppers and store staff were injured or even killed in stampedes of people rushing through store doors trying to get the best deals.

Moreover, this phenomenon has begun to affect ''all'' holidays with an opportunity for commercialization. It is no longer uncommon to see paraphernalia for an upcoming holiday appearing in stores as soon as (if not before) the previous holiday is over. Thus, Valentine's Day merchandise will start to appear shortly after the New Year arrives, with St. Patrick's Day material popping up around the beginning of February, Passover and Easter things at almost the same time,[[note]]though this is justified by the fact that both holidays can fall as early as late March[[/note]] summer items as soon as Easter and Passover are done with, back-to-school sales as early as July,[[note]]this too is justified by the fact that school can resume as early as August in some districts[[/note]] and Halloween items in July or August. Recent surveys indicate that Christmas Creep isn't all bad: Some people often report feeling excited for Christmas as early as ''March'', and [[UsefulNotes/AVeryBritishChristmas in the UK]], people will eagerly flock to their TV screens to watch the premiere of the latest big-budget Christmas Advert produced for John Lewis[[note]]a chain of department stores popular among the entirety of Britain, despite their perceived expensiveness and upper-class attitude by outsiders. Maybe not so much in 2021 as so many stores have been closed down due to Brexit and the Covid thing.[[/note]] at the start of November each year.

Moreover, this phenomenon has begun to affect ''all'' holidays with an opportunity for commercialization. It is no longer uncommon to see paraphernalia for an upcoming holiday appearing in stores as soon as (if not before) the previous holiday is over. Thus, Valentine's Day decorations will appear in stores even before Christmas is over, with St. Patrick's Day material popping up around the beginning of February, Passover and Easter things at almost the same time,[[note]]though this is justified by the fact that both holidays can fall as early as late March[[/note]] summer items as soon as Easter and Passover are done with, back-to-school sales as early as July,[[note]]this too is justified by the fact that school can resume as early as August in some districts[[/note]] and Halloween items in July or August. Recent surveys indicate that Christmas Creep isn't all bad: Some people often report feeling excited for Christmas as early as ''March'', and [[UsefulNotes/AVeryBritishChristmas in the UK, many people flock to their television screens]] to watch the premiere of the latest big-budget Christmas Advert produced for John Lewis[[note]]a chain of department stores popular among the entirety of Britain, despite their perceived expensiveness and upper-class attitude by outsiders. Maybe not so much in 2021 as so many stores have been closed down due to Brexit and the Covid thing.[[/note]] at the start of November each year.

Moreover, this phenomenon has begun to affect ''all'' holidays with an opportunity for commercialization. It is no longer uncommon to see paraphernalia for an upcoming holiday appearing in stores as soon as (if not before) the previous holiday is over. Thus, Valentine's Day decorations will appear in stores even before Christmas is over, with St. Patrick's Day material popping up around the beginning of February, Passover and Easter things at almost the same time,[[note]]though this is justified by the fact that both holidays can fall as early as late March[[/note]] summer items as soon as Easter and Passover are done with, back-to-school sales as early as July,[[note]]this too is justified by the fact that school can resume as early as August in some districts[[/note]] and Halloween items in July or August. Recent surveys indicate that Christmas Creep isn't all bad: Some people often report feeling excited for Christmas as early as ''March'', and [[UsefulNotes/AVeryBritishChristmas in the UK, many people flock to their television screens]] to watch the premiere of the latest big-budget Christmas Advert produced by John Lewis[[note]]a chain of department stores popular among the entirety of Britain, despite their perceived expensiveness and upper-class attitude by outsiders. Maybe not so much in 2021 as so many stores have been closed down due to Brexit and the Covid thing.[[/note]] at the start of November each year.

* The ''ComicStrip/{{Blondie}}'' strip for [[http://safr.kingfeatures.com/idn/etv/zone/xml/content.php?file=aHR0cDovL3NhZnIua2luZ2ZlYXR1cmVzLmNvbS9CbG9uZGllLzIwMTMvMDkvQmxvbmRpZS4yMDEzMDkxNF85MDAuZ2lm September 14, 2013]]. As Dagwood and Blondie are walking through a mall, Dagwood complains about the stores playing Christmas music in September.

Moreover, this phenomenon has begun to affect ''all'' holidays with an opportunity for commercialization. It is no longer uncommon to see paraphernalia for an upcoming holiday appearing in stores as soon as (if not before) the previous holiday is over. Thus, Valentine's Day decorations will appear in stores even before Christmas is over, with St. Patrick's Day material popping up around the beginning of February, Passover and Easter things at almost the same time,[[note]]though this is justified by the fact that both holidays can fall as early as late March[[/note]] summer items as soon as Easter and Passover are done with, back-to-school promos as early as July,[[note]]this too is justified by the fact that school can resume as early as August in some districts[[/note]] and Halloween items in July/August. Recent surveys have revealed that Christmas Creep isn't all bad: Some people often report feeling excited for Christmas as early as ''March'', and [[UsefulNotes/AVeryBritishChristmas in the UK, many people flock to their television screens]] to watch the premiere of the next big-budget Christmas Advert produced by John Lewis[[note]]a chain of department stores popular among the entirety of Britain, despite their perceived expensiveness and upper-class attitude by outsiders. Maybe not so much in 2021 as so many stores have been closed down due to Brexit and the Covid thing.[[/note]] at the start of November each year.

* Beginning in 2007, [=ABC=] Family and its successor, Creator/{{Freeform}}, would extend their annual "25 Days of Christmas" programming into a secondary itenerary. "Countdown to the 25 Days of Christmas" would kick off during the third week in November, with a lighter version of the original block. In 2018, Freeform renamed "Countdown..." as "Kickoff to Christmas", expanding it so that it now envelops the whole of November. This was downplayed in 2021, when they instead extended their Fun Day block into the month of November, but still aired some Christmas movies such as ''Film/HomeAlone'' and ''Film/JingleAllTheWay'' during it.

** Universal and WB released a DVD boxset of all of Rankin/Bass' independently-produced Christmas specials on October 11, 2022, with an equivalent Blu-ray scheduled for Halloween the following year.

** Universal and WB released a DVD boxset of all of Rankin/Bass' Christmas specials (pre-bankruptcy) on October 11, 2022, with an equivalent Blu-ray scheduled for Halloween the following year.

* In 2021, CBS aired ''WesternAnimation/RudolphTheRedNosedReindeer'' on November 22, the Monday before Thanksgiving. Usually, the special airs in December, or at the very least after Thanksgiving has passed. This probably occurred because the network shares the rights to the special with Creator/{{Freeform}}, or perhaps to better coincide with UsefulNotes/{{sweeps}}.

* The film ''Film/TheHeartOfChristmas]]'' is BasedOnATrueStory of Dax Locke, a 2-year-old LittlestCancerPatient whose hometown gave him one last Christmas when it became clear that he would not live till then.

* The film ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Heart_of_Christmas The Heart of Christmas]]'' is BasedOnATrueStory of Dax Locke, a 2-year-old LittlestCancerPatient whose hometown gave him one last Christmas when it became clear that he would not live till then.

* A ''ForBetterOrForWorse'' strip that aired the day after Hallowe'en had Ellie glad that the radio would finally stop playing Hallowe'en ads, which had been going since August. She switches it on to find a store advertising their pre-Christmas sale jamboree.

* In 2021, CBS aired ''WesternAnimation/RudolphTheRedNosedReindeer'' on November 22, the Monday before Thanksgiving. Usually, the special airs in December, or at the very least after Thanksgiving has passed. This probably occurred because the network shares the rights to the special with Creator/{{Freeform}}.

* "Christmas in July" by Joe Scruggs has the singer observing how Christmas decorations are up practically all year in the mall, from August until July, resulting in them having Santa Claus "in Bermuda shorts, standing by the sleigh/reminding folks the holidays were ''six short months'' away." In the end, the singer remarks that cooler heads ultimately prevailed, and they'll take down the decorations by Saint Patrick's Day.

** In ''WesternAnimation/ACharlieBrownChristmas'', the message of the special is that the overt consumption around Christmas and how much earlier it seems to show up every year are both bad things, since the TrueMeaningOfChristmas gets lost by all of the commercialization. This special is what also gave us the name for AluminumChristmasTrees as a symbol of over-consumption and companies working to profit from Christmas early. Partly thanks to ''A Charlie Brown Christmas'' mocking them as kitschy items, aluminum Christmas trees were off the shelves a few years later.

* The Hallmark Channel's "Countdown To Christmas" has gone from 1-2 movies per night throughout December to 24/7 from ''late October'', starting earlier each year--on October 29 in 2016, October 27 in 2017, the 26th in 2018, 25th in 2019, the 23rd in 2020, and the 22nd in October 2021--the network itself even lampshades this with a promo that depicted bunch of trick or treating kids bypassing a house decorated for Halloween, for one decorated for Christmas to get candy canes instead--"On this network, we celebrate Halloween a little differently." The 2018 marathon also finished on January 6th, several days later than previous programming blocks which had previously ended on January 1st. The 2019 and 2020 blocks not only followed suit, the channel capped it off by airing Christmas movies every weekend throughout the year (the former was to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the marathon), and also included mini-marathons in March and April to lift viewers' spirits during the first COVID lockdowns. The network's ChristmasInJuly marathon is itself being subjected to this phenomenon--in 2017, it included movies specifically filmed for this event (indicated by their 2017 release date) in addition to rerunning past Christmas movies, and despite being explicitly titled "Christmas in July", the 2018, 2019, and 2020 marathons started during the last few days of June.

If Christmas Creep appears in media, it's generally PlayedForLaughs, poking fun at the earliness itself or mercilessly mocking the commercialism involved.

* Many commercial radio stations in the U.S. will play nothing but ChristmasSongs throughout November and December, a phenomenon that (as with a lot of the rest of ChristmasCreep) really took off in earnest around the TurnOfTheMillennium. Prior to this, stations that played Christmas music would generally do so only on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, or at the most, sporadically starting after Thanksgiving and eventually with more added the week of Christmas, when holiday-themed songs begin falling into the regular rotation. When it does come to Dec. 24-25, usually those stations that hold out on playing a 24-hour Christmas song playlist will switch, with either pre-recorded or satellite-fed programming played, as well as some songs selected from the playlist that's pre-recorded. Some stations still use live talent on Christmas Day, but more often than not the voices will be voice-tracked, recorded a few days earlier, or simply the music will be played without interruption. Then in the mid-to-late 1990s or so, stations in larger markets began an "all-Christmas" format shortly after Thanksgiving, with adult contemporary stations the most likely to change their format; since then, nearly every market has at least one "all Christmas" station. Sometimes, the format switch will take place as early as late October (a ''full two months'' before the holiday). This has become much more prevalent since 2001, when the aftermath of the September 11th attacks led to listeners wanting to hear LighterAndSofter programming.

* In the US many dollar stores and discount stores begin selling stuff for certain holidays well before their seasons, with some stores stocking items for Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day ''and'' even Easter first thing after Christmas and then pulling out fall decorations and Halloween items around the same time as summer items and school supplies.