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Making a Spreadsheet, Checking It Twice, Gonna Find Out When It's Socially Acceptable to Listen To Christmas Music

It’s that time of year again. And by that time, I mean the time when you aren’t sure if it’s too early to hear Christmas music yet. Is it OK to walk into a certain coffee shop chain in early November and grab a seasonal beverage that can barely call itself coffee? Is it too early to hum a carol when I’ll be waiting to get on a plane the day before Thanksgiving? While driving to your favorite Black Friday activity (the correct answer is skeet shooting or watching football), should the speakers be spreading holiday cheer? Or do you need to wait until you break out the advent calendars to put on a festive record? To answer this age old question, I’m trusting the fine Google searches of my fellow Americans. Using Google Trends data from 2012-2016, I’m going to compare each week of the years’ average searches for the term “Christmas music” as a percentage of the maximum to determine when Americans start listening to Christmas music [1].

Figure 1: Christmas Graph, Oh Christmas Graph

I was surprised by how early many people begin listening to Christmas music, with the earliest search increase occurring in Week 36 (this year that’s the Monday falling on September 4th). There are modest increases through September and October, although by the first week of November (Week 45) the searches are only at 21.6% of their maximum. As one would expect, the searches don’t reach their median value until the middle of Week 47, which typically contains Thanksgiving (this year, the Monday of Week 47 is November 20th). The largest single week over week increase occurs then, solidifying the idea of Thanksgiving as the unofficial start of the Holiday Season. The maximum searching in a week typically occurs the week prior to Christmas, around Week 50. The week of Christmas there is a precipitous drop as people have finished unwrapping presents, eating Christmas dinner, and decided that ‘tis the end of the season [2,3].

Most Americans disagree with our favorite coffee chain that Christmas music (and seasonal beverages) should debut in early November. And for those that are listening to Christmas music before Halloween, I’d advise you to reconsider your life and music choices and enjoy the fall. And pumpkin spice [1].

References:
[1] https://news.starbucks.com/news/starbucks-holiday-season-and-festivities-officially-launch-today
[2] https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=2012-01-31%202017-01-31&geo=US&q=%2Fm%2F0140xf

[3] https://www.epochconverter.com/weeks/2017

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