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"Christmas season" redirects here. For other uses, see Christmas season (disambiguation).
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Wikipedia About Holiday Season
"Christmas season" redirects here. For other uses, see Christmas season (disambiguation).
In the Northern Hemisphere, the Christmas season or (winter) holiday season is a late-year season that surrounds the Christmas holiday as well as other holidays during the November/December timeframe. It is sometimes synonymous with the winter season. It has been found to have a disproportionate effect on health, compared to the rest of the year. Its reference and naming by schools and governments has been the subject of controversy. It incorporates a holiday shopping season which comprises a peak season for the retail sector (the Christmas shopping season), and a period of sales at the end of the season (the January sales).
The exact definition, name, and celebratory method of the period varies from culture to culture: According to Yanovski et al, in the United States the season "is generally considered to begin with Thanksgiving and end after New Year's Day". According to Axelrad, the season in the United States encompasses at least Christmas and New Year's Day, and also includes Saint Nicholas Day. The U.S. Fire Administration defines the winter holiday season as the period from December 1 to January 7. According to Chen et al., in China the Christmas/winter holiday season "is generally considered to begin with the winter solstice and end after the Lantern Festival". Some stores and shopping malls advertise their Christmas merchandise beginning after Halloween or even in late October, alongside Halloween items. In the UK Christmas food appears on supermarket shelves as early as September.
The precise definition of feasts and festival days that are encompassed by the Christmas/winter holiday season has become controversial over recent decades. Traditionally, the only holidays included in the "season" were Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day (in some countries), and New Year's Day. In recent times, this definition has begun to expand to include Yule, Hanukkah and Thanksgiving. Due to the phenomenon of Christmas creep and the informal inclusion of American Thanksgiving, the "winter" holiday season has begun to extend into late autumn. (See also list of winter festivals.)
Shopping
Several of the religious festivals during the Christmas/winter holiday season are celebrated with the exchanges of gifts, and the winter holiday season thus also incorporates the holiday shopping season. This comprises a peak season for the retail sector at the start of the holiday season (the Christmas shopping season) and a period of sales at the end of the season, the January sales.
Although once dedicated mostly to clearance sales the January sales now comprise both winter close-out sales and sales comprising the redemption of gift certificates given as presents. Young-Bean Song, director of analytics at the Atlas Institute in Seattle, states that it is a "myth that the holiday shopping season starts with Thanksgiving and ends with Christmas. January is a key part of the holiday season." stating that for the U.S. e-commerce sector January sales volumes matched December sales volumes in the 2004/2005 winter holiday season.
