Serious question: at what point should Christmas music stop being played? I realize it’s only a few days post Christmas, and I’m all for holiday cheer, but… Let me give you a little context — I’m currently on a cruise to New Zealand with my family (which is wonderful) but alas, I am complaining (please, please forgive this first-world problem). Leading up to Christmas, holiday music poured in from the speakers and was piped in to each room, corridor, and dining hall. I love a little Michael Bublé, but this was not that. Instead it was a plethora of Christmas oldies, dug up from the grave (buried for a good reason), and played, repeatedly, hour after hour. Inescapable. Oh, and Mariah Carey tune was thrown in a handful of times (her annual guest appearance).

It has now been almost 10 straight days with no reprieve of these “cheery” tunes, and all I’m sayin’ is I could use a dose of T. Swift, or whatever other Spotify station they have on retainer.

So, this begs the question, at what point should Christmas music stop being played? Is New Year’s Eve the ultimate cutoff date? Spare my poor ears + the ear worms (read: annoying nuisance of songs stuck in my head).

Taking it back to a cheerier time, when I was not, in fact, utterly sick of Christmas music, but rather awaiting its arrival on the radio… I met up with Abby Sterling of The Glitter Guide to style and photograph this spread in collaboration with American Eagle x Aerie!

Abby’s sweet bungalow in Laguna Beach is cozy, so we made good use of the bright window light streaming in and cleared a space on the floor to layer texture after texture.

Pretty cute, right? Bring on the bubbly!

Photos by me for The Glitter Guide x American Eagle