Companies, Capitalism, and Christmas Creep
Alessandro Pioltelli ’26
When does the holiday season start? The answer seems quite straightforward. Most people would agree that it begins the day after Thanksgiving, partly due to Black Friday. Others may consider December 1st as the start, since it is the month when most holiday festivities occur. But more or less, the season kicks off in late November or early December. That is, unless you’re a company. For companies, the holidays are the most profitable time of year, and since their primary goal is to make money, you can imagine how lucrative it is to promote their “HUGE Black Friday sales” and “Happy Holidays Discounts" as early as possible. Since Christmas is so widely celebrated, drawing out a very merry spirit, companies can manipulate those feelings to make a retail killing. Because the holiday season lasts only a month or so, retailers need to capitalize as much as they can to keep fueling the growth that capitalism requires. But what if it wasn't just one month? What if the holiday season began in early November, or even late October?
As it turns out, that’s exactly what has been happening for the last couple of years. In an attempt to squeeze out more money out of the holiday season, companies have started putting up decorations and merchandise earlier and earlier to the point of absurdity.
You may have noticed this yourself, and it turns out that there’s a name for the phenomenon of setting up Christmas or holiday merchandise earlier than expected: Christmas creep. Although this term primarily refers to the physical introduction of holiday items in retail stores, it can be increasingly applied to the digital landscape as well, specifically in advertising. Online shopping grows each year, especially since data suggests that more than 70% of American consumers planned to buy at least some of their holiday gifts online. From a capitalistic perspective, 28% of all money generated by holiday retail sales in 2024 was from online purchases (data from Statista, 2024). This percentage is likely to grow year after year as more people ditch the long waits in brick and mortar stores for the convenience of shopping from their home. While Christmas creep has been around for decades, it has ramped up a lot in the last couple years in response to and following the COVID-19 pandemic. People have gotten more used to spending time online and using technology to get things done, including shopping.
But what’s the importance of any of this? Why should we care about Christmas creep, and more broadly, companies pushing us to buy our gifts earlier and to view Christmas as a time for sales and savings rather than Santa and snow?
The truth is that people have always bought their gifts before the holiday season even starts. It’s common sense. They want a head start on their gift lists, either to simply get it out of the way or to beat the crowds and avoid items selling out. Corporations like Walmart and Amazon have simply picked up on the consumer habit, and adjusted to fit the market, which means pushing their ads and holiday deals earlier and earlier each year. And with online shopping, consumers don't even have to take much time out of their day to go pick out gifts—they can do it from their phones, which they’ll definitely be incentivized to do when they get a notification advertising the sweet sweet “AMAZING Black Friday Deals!” The phrase is “vote with your wallet” after all, and with Christmas creep, people seem to have voted an enthusiastic “yes!” The fact of the matter is that people will always do what saves them the most time and money, and buying gifts in October instead of December—with the accompanying Black Friday sale—might be the best way for them to truly enjoy the holiday season without stressing over what to get for their uncle Bertram, whom they haven’t seen since Labor Day.