You better watch out. You better not cry. Better not pout. I’m telling you why. Studies have shown that too much Christmas music can be bad for you.
Scientists call it ‘mere exposure effect,’ and Victoria Williamson, Ph.D says it can have a legitimate psychological impact. An endless loop of “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town”, “Drummer Boy”, and “Let it Snow”, can be considered torture for some people, and the more you hear the more you go insane.
The holidays are a stressful time, you have to deal with your family, and travel, buying gifts, figuring out how to pay for those gifts and if you keep hearing Christmas music over and over and over again, you brain becomes over saturated and you start to hate those songs and the holidays.
You might even like hearing “Frosty the Snowman” at first, but the more hear it the less you like it each time until you just want to kick that manger scene across the front lawn to stop from going insane and all I want for Christmas is no more Christmas music.
And now that the Christmas season starts the moment the Halloween candy goes on sale, we get two months of Christmas music at retailers, on the radio, on the TV and basically everywhere we go.
Do you work in retail? Things can be even worse, “People working in the shops [have to tune out] Christmas music, because if they don’t, it really does stop you from being able to focus on anything else…You’re simply spending all of your energy trying not to hear what you’re hearing,” says clinical psychologist Linda Blair.
“I think at first Christmas music is nice, it’s nostalgic, and it gets me into the holiday spirit,” Shana McGough told MSNBC. Then, “it gets old, and it can start to feel like a part of a giant sales machine trying to bleed me dry.”
And the only reason retailers even play Christmas music or have cute little holiday promotions is to sell you more stuff. On a completely unrelated topic, look out for the Riot Fest Holiday Presale, coming soon! Merry Christmas!
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