The Double Standard of Halloween Hype vs. Christmas Hype

As the exuberant rays of the summer sun begin to set, I grievously await not only the cool breeze and the prismatic mortality of the trees’ foliage (anyone who says fall is beautiful is a sadist), but the beginning of the social media epidemic “it’s almost Halloween season.” This year, I saw these types of posts as early as August 29th! It always vexed me to see posts like this, not only because I just never liked Halloween or October (for reasons I will discuss below), but because these very same posters had a lot of negative to say when someone DARED make a post about Christmas before December 1st. People acted as if it was so distasteful and offensive, meanwhile they shared their excitement for the spookiest day of the year months premature. So don’t get your jack-o-lanterns out yet, because we’re going to explore this double standard of holiday hype and why it should not exist.

To start things off, I’m going to beat you over the head with why I think I’m credible to make a comment on this. If you don’t really care and are willing to trust a cynical college kid’s self-awarded accreditation, skip to the next paragraph. I’ll be upfront and say that I generally dislike Halloween, and have for most of my life. “Mark, how can you hate the most fun/spooky/scantily clad night of the year?” Well for starters, I never liked candy or sweets. I was one of those weird kids in your elementary class who rather than a have birthday cake at my party, would opt for putting birthday candles into a halved watermelon. So naturally, the objective of running door to door asking strangers for candy didn’t necessarily get me buzzing. Secondly, a lot of the masks I’d put on for my costume as a kid would be some cheap rubber or latex, and they smelt worse than an IBS truck driver seat on the inside. So the idea of costumes and gross plastic/Chernobyl discharge materials being worn or used as decorations made me gag. Thirdly, pumpkins are gross. And their insides are grosser. Finally, I hate the month of October in general. School is officially in, and the days of icebreaker activities and “how was your summer?” have been replaced with midterms, and a reason to stop showing up late to class because “this new schedule is toooootally messing me up.” Also as a child I noticed October mornings were when we started seeing frost on the grass, which only forewarned of the inevitable fluffy white unforgiving destruction that lay ahead. Grossest month of the year. Do not let these criticisms fool you though, I don’t care for Christmas much more either. Aside from the religious value, it has only ended up being a month worth of hype, hectic work days, and ridiculous amounts of money for one morning. Not only did my dislike of sweets and treats come into play at Christmas, but I also never liked turkey, or any of those Thanksgiving/Christmas dinner dishes. I mean Japan does it right by pre-ordering a bucket of KFC months ahead of time for the occasion! So the reason I felt the need to share all this Scrooge/preacher’s son philosophy with you is to show that I don’t care for either, so this article will contain no bias towards either.

Let’s really get down to business. I have posed this question to many Halloween fanatics as to why there was such disdain towards getting hyped about Christmas prematurely. One of the reasons I heard most commonly was that they felt it was disrespectful, as people getting excited about Christmas in November often overshadows their respect and remembrance for the brave men and women who have fought for our freedom. In Canada, we have Remembrance Day to honor these soldiers on November 11th every year. In the United States, November 11th honors Veterans. Both are extremely important days, in which we should be honoring those who made the ultimate sacrifice for us to live in peace and freedom. I wholeheartedly agree that it is disrespectful to get hyped for Christmas before respecting and remembering these heroes. So with that belief, it is also disrespectful to get hyped for Halloween before September 11th. In the United States, September 11th annually marks a day where Americans all remember and honor those who died in the horrific attacks, as well as the police officers and firefighters who gave their lives to help rescue these people. If you believe it is wrong to get excited about Christmas before remembering our veterans and soldiers, it is just as disrespectful to get hyped about Halloween before September 11th. Some cold hearted people up north might argue that Canadians don’t need to remember, as the attacks weren’t on Canada. But in fact, the September 11th attacks killed 26 Canadians according to Huffington Post. Canada even assisted the USA on that day, and Canadian firefighters traveled to New York City to honor those who gave their lives. So to say that September 11th doesn’t deserve respect from Canadians is not only extremely disgusting, but also completely false. I believe that it is disrespectful to let your excitement for (realistically) pretty materialistic holidays get in the way of your remembrance and respect for those lost and in service to your nation, so both Halloween and Christmas hype should be put off until after September 11th and November 11th, respectively.

Another reason these hollow weenies (I mean Halloweenies) seem to have a bone to pick with the Christmas hype is that they view Christmas as a materialistic holiday, and people only get excited because they’re superficial. I do find Christmas has become a season of capitalism and materialism in full swing, especially in the western world. But I find Halloween is no better, being a vehicle for three deadly sins: materialism/superficiality in the form of social interaction motivated by candy, inconsiderate pranks in the form of egging/TPing houses, and debauchery. Anyone who has worked in bar, liquor, or law enforcement knows that Halloween is one of the busiest nights of the year. So much drinking and partying, and often leading to issues with the law from disturbances and vandalism to serious altercations and medical emergencies. I wish that for everyone, it was exciting because they loved to simply dress up. But for children, it’s a night to be interactive and social with your neighbors only because you will get something in return. For teens and adults, it’s a night to party and get wild. All sounds very superficial in a similar way to Christmas, doesn’t it? Not to mention all the capitalism and spending that Halloween also entails. I’m not saying Christmas doesn’t have its share of debauchery either. Famous office Christmas parties, liquor stores being trampled for a month, it still exists over the season of cheer. But it still does not entail the same amount of recklessness and partying that Halloween does. I don’t dislike any of these holidays for these reasons, but I think if you are going to hate on one holiday for being materialistic, you can’t ignore the fact that the other is as well. You could argue that the superficiality of Christmas is amplified because it was spiritually intended to be the day you celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. But Halloween wasn’t universally decided thousands of years ago to be a candy piled party day, it was actually decided by the Catholic church to be a day where you thwart off evil spirits to prepare for the day of the saints, which is November 1st. The reason we get our current Halloween culture from that idea is that people would try and “scare” the evil spirits away, which is why Halloween is decorated as a spooky holiday. For many different cultures and religions, Halloween originated as something different. But I highly doubt any of these Halloween fanatics are celebrating Halloween to prepare for the saints to come in, or for any other traditional reason from other cultures. It’s being celebrated for the love of material and partying, which makes it very much the pot calling the kettle black.

It should be widely recognized that there is a double standard here. People who get publicly hyped about Halloween a month early are unfairly critical of those who do the same for Christmas. It should also be universally recognized that it is disrespectful to let the excitement for these holidays take priority over your respect and remembrance for our fallen and serving heroes. It should be noted that I may just be overall bitter that summer is over. But MOST OF ALL, it should be noted that these are two days of the year that make a lot of people happy and excited, and that you should not be critical of that unless they are disrespectful about it. I’ve discussed how both of these holidays have their negatives, their positives, and origins that are widely deviated from and forgotten. Personal thoughts on each holiday aside, the main point of this article was to illuminate that there should be no double standard when getting excited in public about these holidays. If you are going to hate on one, you must hate on both. And don’t hate on both, because then you’ll end up like me: no candy, holiday cheer, getting visited by 3 ghosts on both of these nights, and volunteering to work on both of these days (yes in high school I VOLUNTEERED to work every Christmas day at the local movie theatre. How sad is that?) With respect to our veterans, troops, casualties, firefighters, and police officers, we should all be free of scrutiny when getting excited about the holidays.