Hate Christmas tunes in October? There may be a scientific explanation.
Do you resent being told you should be simply having a wonderful Christmas time — in October? Or hearing that the weather outside is frightful but the fire inside's delightful while it is still hurricane and forest fire season? Perhaps you simply don't care to hear about somebody whose heart was stolen last Christmas, then given away, before eating your Thanksgiving turkey. It isn't just you.
Linda Blair, a clinical psychologist in Great Britain, says that hearing Christmas music months before Christmas can cause stress, reminding people of all the things left to do before the holidays — buying gifts, making cookies, decorating the house, planning parties. "Music goes right to our emotions immediately and it bypasses rationality," she tells Sky News. "Christmas music is likely to irritate people if it's played too loudly and too early." And if you think it's bad as a shopper — Best Buy starts the Christmas tunes Oct. 22, according to the Tampa Bay Times — imagine working in a mall.
Hearing the same music over and over makes workers "unable to focus on anything else," Blair said. "You're simply spending all of your energy trying not to hear what you're hearing." On the other hand, if you're one of those people who loves hearing about lovely weather for a sleigh ride together anytime after the Fourth of July, well, there's always Pandora.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Political cartoons for January 24Cartoons Saturday's political cartoons include 3D chess, political distractions, and more
-
Ryanair/SpaceX: could Musk really buy the airline?Talking Point Irish budget carrier has become embroiled in unlikely feud with the world’s wealthiest man
-
Claudette Colvin: teenage activist who paved the way for Rosa ParksIn The Spotlight Inspired by the example of 19th century abolitionists, 15-year-old Colvin refused to give up her seat on an Alabama bus
-
‘One Battle After Another’ wins Critics Choice honorsSpeed Read Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest film, which stars Leonardo DiCaprio, won best picture at the 31st Critics Choice Awards
-
A peek inside Europe’s luxury new sleeper busThe Week Recommends Overnight service with stops across Switzerland and the Netherlands promises a comfortable no-fly adventure
-
Son arrested over killing of Rob and Michele ReinerSpeed Read Nick, the 32-year-old son of Hollywood director Rob Reiner, has been booked for the murder of his parents
-
Rob Reiner, wife dead in ‘apparent homicide’speed read The Reiners, found in their Los Angeles home, ‘had injuries consistent with being stabbed’
-
Hungary’s Krasznahorkai wins Nobel for literatureSpeed Read László Krasznahorkai is the author of acclaimed novels like ‘The Melancholy of Resistance’ and ‘Satantango’
-
Primatologist Jane Goodall dies at 91Speed Read She rose to fame following her groundbreaking field research with chimpanzees
-
Florida erases rainbow crosswalk at Pulse nightclubSpeed Read The colorful crosswalk was outside the former LGBTQ nightclub where 49 people were killed in a 2016 shooting
-
Trump says Smithsonian too focused on slavery's illsSpeed Read The president would prefer the museum to highlight 'success,' 'brightness' and 'the future'
