Calling attention to the inching-up of holiday marketing has become a tiresome ritual. Canada’s Saskatoon Star-Phoenix reported on the gripes of British retailers in 1954, and Florida’s Evening Independent wrote in 1968 that Labor Day was earlier than ever for Christmas season to kick off. Bemoaning the encroachment of Christmas ads is just a necessary, collective sigh before it’s agreed that the holidays can be discussed in earnest.

The media's concern that Christmas advertising comes earlier every year is unshakeable because it's a trope that allows for easy September news stories; for all the commotion, most people don’t actually seem to mind that advertising begins in September. Two-thirds of people surveyed in a Bain & Company poll last week reported few, if any, negative feelings about it. One-third even said that the ads put them in a good mood. This receptiveness jibes with the National Retail Federation’s consistent finding that almost half of Americans start shopping for the holidays before Halloween.

Americans' Feelings About Holiday Ads in September

HBR.org | Bain & Company

Businesses, for their part, have good reasons to stretch ad campaigns out to three months. Making sure that people start shopping early can, during peak shopping periods, lessen the need for overtime wages and for hiring a temporary workforce.

Christmas ads, and their timing, probably are fretted about because of how much is riding on them economically. It’s well-known that late December is the most lucrative time of the year for holiday sales, but the distance between it and the next-most-lucrative occasion—back-to-school shopping—is massive. It’s been estimated that the winter holidays make for nearly one-fifth of retail revenues every year.

Holiday Spending in the Past 12 Months, in Billions

National Retail Federation

So, don’t complain when, in the next month, the radio starts playing Christmas music—we’re currently three weeks into the holiday season.

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