Why Are People so Quick to End the Fall Season Early?

It’s the day after Labor Day, and I find myself scrolling aimlessly through Instagram (again). You Had Me at Pumpkin Spice reads one ad for a super cute t-shirt.  Another post is for a hoodie that reads Oh My Gourd. I Love Fall. Also featured are a ton of other puntastic Fall swag in the form of mugs, car magnets, doormats, and so much more. It is obvious people are psyched about autumn. In fact, in survey after survey, Americans claim that Fall is their favorite season.

Given this unsurprising information, why are stores and people ready to leave Fall behind (pun intended) and slip into Winter so freakin’ early?

On October 11, I went up to Pittsburgh, and what, to my wondering eyes, did appear was a fully decorated giant Christmas tree in PPG Plaza. I read an article online that they were “testing their new tree,” which is why the folks who manage the plaza installed it in early October. Vague reasons aside, the ‘Burg is hardly alone in beginning the Holly Jolly season more than two months early. While most people used to wait until after Thanksgiving to put up their lights, wreaths, and festive snowman pillows, I’ve noticed that roughly a third of the homes in town have already started decking their halls.

This means that even though Fall doesn’t officially end until December 21, most people are ready to move on from pumpkin spice lattes and hayrides directly to gingerbread lattes and sleigh rides by or before November 1. Can we really say that Fall is our favorite season if, less than halfway through, we’ve abandoned it? And don't get me started on how Thanksgiving gets the short end of the stick. What a shock. A holiday about being grateful is mostly ignored. You know, except for a few of those giant inflatable turkeys that adorn some lawns and the Thanksgiving Day Parade which unsurprisingly, ends with Santa on his sleigh. Many people don't even wait for the day to be over before we start shopping for Christmas.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I LOVE Christmas. I love Christmas caroling, sipping on a peppermint hot chocolate, and all those copycat Hallmark/Family Channel/Every Streaming Service holiday romances. I especially like the ones where the “Big-City Stressed Out Working Woman Who Didn’t Think She Needed a Man goes home for the holidays and, after lots of Crazy Mix-Ups and Pratfalls, ends up falling for the Super-Hot Hometown Guy Who Seems Poor but is Actually Rich and Did I Mention Single and No Other Single Woman and Town Has Noticed.  This is basically 95% of them, yet I still watch and sometimes cry because I am a sap.

I also get that we all need a little, okay, maybe a lot of Christmas right now because the world is a scary place. Pretending that we all live in the snow globe-esque worlds of these movies, songs, and our own fuzzy memories is super comforting. We all want an escape from reality, and starting Christmas early seems like an easy way to do this.

That said, why, oh, why can’t we continue to lean into the Apple Cider and Pumpkin Spice vibes just a little longer?

And, more importantly, instead of commencing the celebration of Christmas in October and ending it on December 25, why can’t we start later and extend it into January and February when it’s cold, dark, and depressing as hell? I truly believe Jesus would not be upset if we started celebrating his b-day in late December and then stretched that celebration until the crocuses appeared. His birthday is only approximate, anyway.

Now, who is with me in collectively agreeing to enjoy and revel in the Fall season at least until December 1 and extending it until March? I promise we’ll have fewer miserable people moping in the heart of winter if they could hear Let It Snow in February, get hot-and-bothered by a Hallmark woodworking millionaire, and smell cinnamon stick-scented candles to get them through it. And for the record, we can eliminate Valentine’s Day and New Year’s Eve altogether – way too much pressure tied to those to be amazing when most people end up drunk and disappointed instead.

Thanks for listening to me. And to make this trend happen, I think we should use the hashtag #KeepPumpkinSpiceSeasonGoingUntilDecember or, more simply, #FallEndsDecember21.