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- This gradual Christmas crawl can have a negative impact on your mental health, says clinical psychologist Linda Blair. Slipping in Christmas music before the holiday season officially starts can actually make you more anxious and depressed, she told Sky News.
www.healthline.com/health-news/is-christmas-music-bad-for-mental-health
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- Stevie Wonder, ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Me’ In 1967, Stevie Wonder, a mere 17 years old and already a top talent at Motown — if not quite yet a legend in his own time — released his eighth album (in five years!)
- New Kids on the Block, ‘Funky, Funky, Xmas’ The spelling is merely the first groaner. “It’s boring, it’s boring — same thing every year,” grouses an elf as this track starts, so NKOTB decide to switch it up.
- Pentatonix, ‘That’s Christmas to Me’ It’s only three minutes long, but it feels like 30. In those seemingly interminable 180 seconds, a cappella quintet Pentatonix describe a peaceful, wholesome scene — a bright-burning fireplace, hanging stockings, a “good old Christmas tree” — but with just their voices singing in unison, it becomes boring quickly.
- Justin Bieber, ‘Mistletoe’ What’s more disturbing: A 17-year-old Justin Bieber singing the word “shawty,” or the fact that the video shows him sending a Christmas card to his girlfriend and signing it “Justin Bieber”?
Dec 13, 2017 · Surprisingly, yes, according to Linda Blair, the clinical psychologist who is behind all the recent stories. Back in October, a Sky News reporter had the shock of hearing Christmas songs...
- Overview
- Starting the clock
- The effect on employees
- How to still enjoy Christmas
The holiday tunes are fine, but experts say listening to too much Christmas music or hearing it too early can cause anxiety and depression.
As soon as the little ghosts and goblins are tucked into bed on Halloween night, it seems a switch flips and Christmas lights spring up like eager buds at springtime.
Thanksgiving? What’s that?
The November holiday has little room to roam between the haunts of Halloween and the jingling bells of Christmas.
Indeed, it seems the marketing ploys start pushing jolly old Saint Nicholas as soon as the Halloween candy is on clearance.
This phenomenon, known as Christmas Creep, means stores are playing holiday tunes earlier and earlier.
Christmas music may be like a sort of opening bell to the holiday season.
“The songs actually trigger a countdown clock in our minds and can cause stress and anxiety about the number of items we need to complete before December 25th,” said Scott Dehorty, a licensed certified social worker and the executive director at Maryland House Detox, a treatment center in Linthicum Heights, Maryland.
“Instead of feeling warm feelings of family and giving,” he told Healthline, “it can trigger thoughts of how many people we need to shop for, party planning, traveling, seeing relatives we may not want to see, and all sort of negative feelings.”
Indeed, the Tampa Bay Times reports that Best Buy strikes the first chord on the Christmas compositions in stores on October 22.
Soon after that, on November 1, major brands like Sears, Michaels, and Lane Bryant follow.
From there, others start trickling in the tunes through November.
The threat to sanity is especially strong for retail and seasonal workers who dish out holiday cheer despite the steady stream of stressed shoppers.
“People working in the shops at Christmas have to learn how to tune it out,” Blair said, “because if they don’t, it really does make you unable to focus on anything else. You simply are spending all your energy trying not to hear what you’re hearing.”
Kate Chapman, now a holistic medicine specialist, worked as Mrs. Claus in the Radio City Christmas Spectacular every holiday season from 2001 to 2006.
“I lived with a never-ending loop of holiday tunes and ‘Ho, Ho, Ho’ running through my brain,” she told Healthline.
For Chapman, the Christmas Creep started before Halloween each year, when rehearsals for the iconic Broadway shows began.
“I arrived each day and heard Christmas music spilling out from every room I passed,” she recalled. “The Rockettes rehearsed their numbers again and again and again, providing an endless loop of ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’ or ‘Christmas in New York.’ I sang and danced for hours each day, immersed in the world of Mrs. Claus. Christmas consumed me, day in, day out, until our opening before Thanksgiving.”
Chapman’s realization of her role in the holiday festivities may have helped her retain some level of composure through the physical and emotional demands.
That clarity, Dehorty says, is precisely the perspective we all need to help us maintain stability in the hectic holiday season.
“While it’s difficult to not listen to Christmas music as you are out and about, you don’t have to enjoy it,” Dehorty says. “One issue is that we all feel like we should be enjoying the music and atmosphere — you don’t. Make the holiday what you want and enjoy it. Make it about giving or volunteering for those in need. Start new traditions you look forward to.”
In fact, if you relish the opportunity to cover your house in lights and garlands, then embrace it.
People who decorate for the holidays early may actually be happier than people who wait or don’t decorate at all, Steve McKeown, a British psychoanalyst, told UNILAD.
“In a world full of stress and anxiety, people like to associate to things that make them happy, and Christmas decorations evoke those strong feelings of childhood,” McKeown said. “Decorations are simply an anchor or pathway to those old childhood magical emotions of excitement, so putting up those Christmas decorations early extends the excitement.”
Oct 23, 2018 · Christmas might be the season of giving, but Christmas music might be giving us something we definitely don't want: bad mental health. There's a lot of factors that can make Christmas...
Nov 2, 2018 · Hearing too much Christmas music is officially bad for you. The constant barrage of music that starts in November and intensifies until Christmas starts out making people happy, but...
Nov 11, 2023 · While Christmas songs can be festive however, they can also have a negative effect on our mental health, particularly if they're played on repeat. In this article: Why can Christmas music affect our mental health? Can Christmas music boost well-being? What to do if you hate Christmas music. Why can Christmas music affect our mental health?
Oct 16, 2018 · If you work in a shop and you already feel like Christmas songs are getting to you, you might actually be right. According to clinical psychologist Linda Blair, relentless festive tunes can be mentally draining.
