Listening to Christmas Music Too Early is Bad for Your Mental Health?

We all know someone (or maybe you are that someone) who refuses to listen to Christmas music until after Thanksgiving. It seems the holiday season is continually being drawn out and Christmas often seems to encroach on other holidays.

Those who bemoan this fact will be pleased to know that, according to a recent study, listening to Christmas music too early is actually bad for your mental health.

According to CBS local affiliate KYW, clinical psychologist Linda Blair says that hearing Christmas music too often and too early can cause people to focus not on the joy of Christmas, but instead on all the tasks they have to accomplish before the holiday arrives: gifts to buy, shopping to do, food to prepare, travel plans to make, etc.

“You’re simply spending all of your energy trying not to hear what you’re hearing,” Blair says.

She goes on to say that hearing Christmas music too often and too early is especially an issue for those who work in retail. Since Christmas music is on repeat in most stores beginning in November--or in some even earlier--it is very difficult for workers to “tune it out,” which makes them “unable to focus on anything else,” according to Blair.

Carl Lisciandrello, an editor for the Tampa Bay Times, even tweeted out a graph of when different stores begin playing Christmas music.

We're barely into November and stores are already playing Christmas music. How early is too early? via @SpataTimes https://t.co/LLhFTvQfZ9 pic.twitter.com/0Q6mXlTZ9T

— Carl Lisciandrello (@carlmarksTimes) November 8, 2017

What about you? Do you like hearing Christmas music early, or would you rather wait until after Thanksgiving?

Photo courtesy: ©Thinkstock/artisteer 

Publication date: November 9, 2017