Hold your jingle bells, Mariah. More than half of Americans say holiday music is played too early, new Yahoo/YouGov poll shows.
'Tis the season, or is it?
When the clock struck midnight on Nov. 1, it seemed like everyone was ready to bid farewell to spooky season and say hello to mistletoe.
Across the country, a number of radio stations switched over to playing all Christmas music, all the time. Even the self-proclaimed Queen of Christmas, Mariah Carey, shared a video on Instagram, in which she breaks out of a block of ice with her mighty whistle register to proclaim, "It's ... TIME!"
'Tis the season — or is it?
According to data from the latest Yahoo/YouGov poll, only 20% of respondents think the holiday season should start right after Halloween, compared with 45% who prefer it to kick off right after Thanksgiving. Some would rather wait even later, with 20% of respondents saying they'd be ready to celebrate Hanukkah, Christmas and Kwanza closer to the actual dates themselves.
But it's not just the holidays that people aren't ready for. It's also the music.
While 35% of poll respondents say they begin to hear holiday music at "about the right time" each season, 54% percent say it's been starting "too early" over the past few years.
That includes Carey's megahit "All I Want for Christmas Is You." Forty-five percent of Americans polled say the song is played "too much" throughout the holiday season, compared with the 34% who say it's played at just the "right amount."
Whether you love it or hate it, there's no denying "All I Want for Christmas Is You" has become synonymous with the holidays. Not only does the bop routinely play on the radio from Nov. 1 through Dec. 25, but it was also ranked No. 1 among the "Greatest of All Time Holiday 100 Songs" by Billboard. In April, the tune was added to the Library of Congress's National Recording Registry, becoming one of just 625 titles selected as as work of "enduring importance to American culture." Carey is set to perform "All I Want for Christmas Is You" before a national television audience at the Billboard Music Awards on Nov. 19.
Carey and Christmas have become so intertwined, Mattel is getting in on the pairing. On Friday, the toy company unveiled its Mariah Carey Barbie doll as the songstress embarks on her "Merry Christmas One and All" tour, which kicked off this week in Los Angeles and makes its last stop in New York City on Dec. 17.
"It's a once-in-a-lifetime dream to have my own Barbie," Carey said in a statement. "If I could go back and tell my little-girl self that one day I would have a Barbie made in my likeness, I think she would flip out!"
The Yahoo Entertainment survey was conducted by YouGov using a nationally representative sample of 1,675 U.S. adults interviewed online from Nov. 9 to 13, 2023. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, education, 2020 election turnout and presidential vote, baseline party identification and current voter registration status. Demographic weighting targets come from the 2019 American Community Survey. Baseline party identification is the respondent's most recent answer given prior to Nov. 1, 2022, and is weighted to the estimated distribution at that time (33% Democratic, 27% Republican). Respondents were selected from YouGov's opt-in panel to be representative of all U.S. adults. The margin of error is approximately 2.8%.
