It’s an age-old debate: Should we start to play Christmas music right after Halloween or wait until after Thanksgiving?

If you ask me, I think that we should play Halloween music all year round, as there is nothing quite like listening to “Spooky Scary Skeletons” while laying on a lounge chair outside of your private beach house in Malibu in mid-July. 

But that’s just me. Most people, sadly, don’t want to listen to “This is Halloween” or “Thriller,” all year round. Some people love the holiday season and just can’t wait to get it started, even if that means getting it started right on Nov. 1. 

Historically, the townies here in Lewisburg have been resistant to the holiday spirit. Last year, we interviewed several townsfolk and found that the majority of people were firm believers in waiting until after Thanksgiving for holiday music, and 22 percent believed in not listening to holiday music at all. So we decided to run an experiment to see if their behavior would change. 

As a part of our study, we installed hidden speakers in several townspeople’s houses. Beginning on December 26th, 2021, we started to play Mariah Carey’s hit song “All I Want for Christmas is You,” at an audible level that the human ear could barely even hear.

We kept the song playing constantly, attempting to engrain it in people’s minds, as they would hear it all the time (when they’re sleeping, cooking, reading, etc…). Each day, we increased the volume of the song. The findings were interesting, to say the least.

One month after the experiment’s start, people reported hearing random humming of “All I Want for Christmas is You.” A month after that, people reported having dreams of watching Mariah Carey perform. Two months after that, people dreamed that they were performing with Mariah Carey, and a month later, they dreamed that they were Mariah Carey.

During the month of July, people reported singing “All I Want for Christmas is You” in their sleep.

Needless to say, on Nov. 1, 2022 at midnight, all of the Halloween music stopped, and the very loud voice of Mariah Carey filled the streets of Lewisburg.