Nov 15, 2017 4 min read

Who hasn’t heard Mariah Carey caterwauling “All I Want for Christmas is You” at some point over the last couple of years and thought, “If I hear that thing one more time, I should just go ahead and download the commitment papers for the nearest mental institution.”

Or Wham’s “Last Christmas”? Madonna’s rendition of “Santa Baby”? “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer”?

Yes, some Christmas songs can summon up images of restraints and padded cells after just one or two spins, and most certainly after 1,693,437 plays, and the latter number is not entirely out of the realm of possibility, considering that some radio stations and department stores have reduced their Christmas playlists to about 20 songs, and they repeat them over and over and over and over again.

But it’s not just the quality or the repetition of Christmas music that can drive people batty. According to a new study from British psychologist Linda Blair (no relation to the actress who was in “The Exorcist” all those years ago), too much Christmas music can take a toll on your mental health. Her reasoning? Hearing the joyful strains of Burl Ives’ “Holly Jolly Christmas” and songs of that ilk actually serve as reminders that we have a lot of things to do, a load of gifts to purchase and painfully frayed nerves.

“Christmas music is likely to irritate people if it’s played too loudly or too early,” Blair told Sky News.

If you think having to endure sleigh bells and glockenspiels is an ordeal, consider the plight of store employees, who are exposed to it throughout their shifts. Blair said they can have a hard time tuning it out and focusing on other tasks. “You’re simply spending all of your energy trying not to hear what you’re hearing,” she explained.

For those luckless souls who have to stock shelves or punch cash register keys amid the aural onslaught, their plight has perhaps only worsened in recent years. Retailers have succumbed to “holiday creep” in order to get customers through the doors and in a buying mood. This means the tinsel and artificial trees are dusted off at earlier and earlier points on the calendar. As we reported last month, this has also extended to Halloween – it’s now not uncommon to see retailers hauling out the candy and costumes the minute the back-to-school sales wrap up.

How bad is it?

The Tampa Bay Times recently surveyed major retailers and found the Best Buy chain starts sprinkling holiday selections into its in-store playlist Oct. 22. Sears and Kmart follow Nov. 1, and Office Depot and Office Max followed this past weekend. Brace yourself, because Staples, Giant Eagle and a horde of other retailers will follow suit in the days ahead.

The customers of these stores may not be happy with it. According to a poll by the Tampa Bay newspaper, a combined 78 percent prefer to hear Christmas music only after Thanksgiving or in December. Only 22 percent enjoy after Halloween or “any time.” And there is some indication that a backlash could be brewing – a programming executive with Mood Media, the providers of music for large retailers, told the Times some stores are starting to back off holiday music, or in some instances bypassing it entirely. Some of it is out of consideration for employees who, the executive said, have to hear the holiday fare for hours on end.

“If they’re not happy, nobody’s going to be happy,” he said.

So, go ahead, be a Scrooge and turn off the radio the next time “All I Want for Christmas is You” comes on. Your mental health could depend on it.