Fer Cryin’ Out Loud

Have you noticed how Christmas keeps getting earlier and earlier each year?

I’m not talking about the actual date it falls on; I’m talking about when retailers start selling Christmas stuff. Decorations, wrapping paper, those premade gift baskets.

I took the above picture of Rudolph the day before Halloween. Not before Thanksgiving, before Halloween. That’s right, in October. I walked by a display that was hawking Christmas CD’s, with samples playing and everything.

Here’s the kicker: I took the picture of Santa on September 20th.

It’s been creeping back for years now. It used to be the day after Thanksgiving. Then it started creeping back a few days…the “Pre-Black-Friday sales.” Then a week. Then two.

Now we’re looking at Rudolph hanging out with the Grim Reaper outfits and plastic Jack-O-Lanterns while Santa has been taking up space next to the kiddy pools more than a month prior. What’s next? The combination 4^th of July/Christmas sale? It’s bad enough that a perfectly good holiday where we should be appreciating all the good things that life has brought us is commercialized to the point it is…but do we really have to start having Christmas sales three months before the actual holiday?

I enjoy the Christmas season as much as anyone…it is simply my favorite time of year. But seeing this just gave me one thought…

Humbug!

UPDATE: The grocery store is fully stocked with several brands of Egg Nog in regular and low-fat. No, I’m not kidding.

Tags: christmas, commercialized, early, halloween, holiday, retail, rudolph, sale, santa, thanksgiving