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Monday, November 7, 2022

Christmas Music? If Not Now, When?


A fresh NuVoodoo QuickTurn Study fielded just a few days after Halloween gives us indicators of what could be an early season for Christmas music. 

Many stations have already flipped the Santa switch. To benefit programmers who can't afford a custom study to help them make their Christmas programming choices, NuVoodoo fielded QuickTurn Study on November 3.

This new study includes 1,889 Adults 18-64 nationwide and shows strong anticipation of the upcoming vaccinated holidays. In 2021 a 44% plurality said they were looking forward to the holidays more than the prior year (referring to the pre-vaccine 2020 holiday season). The holidays this year are a little less hotly anticipated, but we still found a strong 33% eagerly awaiting the holidays.

As you might expect, households with children under age 18 are even more excited about the coming holidays. Among those households a 44% plurality are looking forward to these holidays even more than they were in 2021.

Nearly 3 in 5 among this sample will at least say they’re looking forward to Christmas music as the holidays approach – and nearly 1 in 4 say they can’t wait for it. As we’d seen the presence of children in a household lift holiday anticipation, so too does it lift the appetite for Christmas music.

Respondents were also asked to predict when they’d like to hear Christmas music mixed into weekend programming. Most say they wouldn’t want that until after Thanksgiving. A 10% sliver say they’re ready now and another 20% come on board as we creep up to Thanksgiving. Again, the presence of children in a household lifts interest in holiday music significantly.

Finally, respondents were asked to make the tricky judgment of when they’d use an all-Christmas-music station. While we know people are terrible at predicting their own behavior, we can use their responses as a guide. Among households with children present, 36% are ready to go as Thanksgiving looms closer – and, of course, the demand breaks big time once the turkey’s been cleared.

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