Does Christmas start too early?
We have this rule in my house, “Until we see the Coca-Cola advert or the Guinness one, then it is not Christmas!”. This has always been the way in my house; we never put our decorations up until the first week of December and don’t tend to get into the “Christmas spirit” until that time of the year. Every family has their own time for putting up their decorations or starting to watch Christmas movies or even talking about Christmas in general. Some families start on the 1st of November and some families don’t put their decorations up until the 20th of December; it simply depends on how you feel about Christmas.
Although each family has their own time to start the festive period, organisations have their own ideas also. Many companies start to present their instore decorations on the 1st of November, start displaying Christmas decorations even before Halloween and offer Christmas packages for gifts etc. around the same time.
Christmas is a big time of year for every organisation there is, and it is also their busiest. They tend to promote Christmas as soon as they can but doe that really help with sales. Some people like to start their Christmas shopping early just to have it done to allow them to enjoy themselves over the Christmas period; where as others tend to wait until December as shopping for presents is part of the Christmas season. Over the past few years. organisations have tended to chance and put out their Christmas offers extra earlier and earlier. Does this have an impact on their sales or does this simply irritate the public because of how early they start the festive season? There’s a possibility it’s both.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6En52Uvb8Kc
People may feel pressured into quickly picking up bargains and sales to help with their Christmas shopping which then helps the organisations sales incline. On the other hand, people wish to enjoy Christmas, they don’t want to be sick of it halfway through December. Families, including my own, start Christmas on December first. This is when we watch our Christmas movies, listen to music and want to start our Christmas shopping. Christmas is more than shopping and presents for most families; its about the time we spend with family and friends. It’s a time to celebrate and enjoy time together. The main thing for most families is the magic of Christmas because of young children still believing in Santa Claus. Organisations play on this using the most impactful Christmas advertisements. For example, Coca-Cola have used to same Christmas advert of the lorry driving through towns as people of all ages stand out to see it for over 10 years which shows how much of an impact it has had on the public. Choosing the right time to share any media content and what you will choose is very important for a company. This year alone we have already seen how Iceland have chosen to use the new Frozen movie. This is a very smart decision for this company as it will become noticed by children very quickly which will result in them trying to get the attention of their parents to also watch the advertisement in turn allowing them to look at not just the fact of Frozen but of what the company have to offer.
Christmas is not all about the gifts and the money you spend; Christmas is more about the time you spend with the ones you love around you. Many people care more abut what they are giving and receiving from others, rather than how much time they get to spend with family and friends. It is the time of year that brings everyone closer together and allows people who don’t normally spend time with family or friends to do so. Organisations have the opposite view on this and constantly promote their products as early as they can for the cash flow, which is their main object but could possibly create more family and festive centred advertisements rather than simply targeting popular characters or movies etc. to attract peoples attention. Everyone has their own idea of Christmas, but does it really have to start as early as before Halloween and not have the festive aspect included?
Hollie Walls is a final year BSc in Communication Management & Public Relations student at Ulster University. She can be found at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hollie-walls-565716198/ and Instagram – @holliewallss