Christmas commercials already?

I noticed them last week. Now it seems like more each day. Is it me or is this earlier than normal? Have you noticed this or am I being overly anal?

I'm sure it is driven by the economy - or lack of. Each year the commercialization of Christmas bothers me more, I'll be sick of it by Thanksgiving at this rate.

 

Christmas decorations are popping up sooner as well I believe. It may have been Nov. 1st, but I was browsing the halloween merchandise on clearance. It's bizarre to go down an aisle with bats, witches and vampires then turn a corner to see baby Jesus.

 

Christmas displays went up in my local Kroger supermarket this past weekend. I suppose it does take the focus off the oversized and overstuffed displays of frozen turkeys I've been walking past since mid-October.

 

Three cheers for Nordstroms. Wish there was a store closer to where I live. Been to the Nordstroms on Michigan Avenue in Chicago, very nice. Great service.

 

It's called Christmas Creep. It starts in the lower-end stores and flows outward from there. Blame America if you don't like it.

 

There were stores around here with xmas decorations out two weeks before Halloween. It was insane.

 

I suppose some people have begun Christmas shopping already although I don't know of anyone who has, or at least would admit to it.

 

Most American stores start planning for Christmas the day after the 4th of July.

 

I have. If you don't hit the toys at Costco early, a lot of the good ones get snapped up. The deals are good enough to hide them away for a while. I've also got a couple of other presents already bought when I had the time and the ability to secret them away.

My boss right out of college bought his kids' (then about 12 and 10) presents by Labor Day. He had a place to store them and knew that he'd avoid the Christmas mark-up. It takes a lot of discipline to shop that way, though, especially with kids who might want the latest cool thing. Hard to predict that in August.

 

Got all of the wife's gifts already, and some of my daughter's ( online baby! ). I'm almost done with all the non-gift card Xmas gifts. Ho ho ho

 

I have. I usually wait until the last minute and then feel rushed and just buy any old thing. I vowed not to do that this year.

Michaels (craft store) started stocking Christmas the first week of October. I stopped in to pick something up the week before Halloween and everything had been put in one spot as "clearance", and all of their Christmas stuff was out. It was kind of irritating. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Christmas, but hold off until after October for pete's sake. As far as commercials go, I don't really recall seeing any until the day after Halloween, which seems to be SOP around here.

From a retail perspective, setting Christmas sucks. It's a lot easier to get a little out as you can because the day after Halloween is pure hell. When I see mid-October Christmas stuff in grocery stores, I understand why. Not to mention, people will start buying stuff early, so it makes sense on their end.

We've had lousy Christmases the past 4 years due to a variety of reasons. I'm very excited for Christmas this year and spent the last two days listening to nothing but Christmas music at work. Insane, yes. I just can't help but be giddy.

 

My mom shopped all year around for Christmas presents. She loved it. She got so good at hiding that she wouldn't find some presents until February. I always loved getting something 2 months after Christmas.

Thanks to my mother, I love shopping the day after Thanksgiving...Black Friday. Nothing like throwing elbows for a Tickle Me Elmo. Even though she had been shopping all year long, my mom went every year. She'd go at the crack of dawn with my aunt and they would shop for hours. Then she'd come home...still relatively early for an angsty teenager....and wake my ass up to drag me out for MORE shopping. I don't really think it was so much for the acquiring of goods, but for the experience. I remember my mother buying a toy that she didn't need/want just so some bitchy woman who desperately wanted it couldn't have it. She ended up donating the toy. She felt it was more important for a needy child to receive the toy than some spoiled brat. She was an awesome lady.

Even after she passed away, I still went shopping the day after Thanksgiving. I rarely bought anything, but just being out in the crazy crowds helped me to remember the fun mom and I had. I didn't go last year, but will definitely go this year. I think my mom would be interested in knowing how Oregonians act.

 

We get most of the items we're sure will go early online ahead of time, and I'm always snooping the lastest BF ads that get leaked early. My wife and I make a huge deal out of Black Friday going from the midnight madness sales all the way till around noon or 1 pm the next day. Sometimes we go just to snap up things for ourselves and watch the mayhem on the big ticket items that are limited in stock.

@sombiesquirrel - we'll do the snatch and donate thing sometimes if we see someone acting like a complete ass, but people are cuhraaaazy about toys for their brats and most of the time I'd rather not take a bullet because some brat isn't going to get his Zhu-Zhu Hamster.

 

Well here in Nottingham, England the Christmas lights are put up on the street, and have walked into a few shops with Christmas carols playing. Walked straight back out again as can't be doing with that rubbish already !

 

It wouldn't hurt my feelings at all if Christmas ceased to exist.

 

Even though I am an atheist, I do thoroughly enjoy the Christmas season. Mostly for the non-religious and non-commercial family activities though like putting up the exterior lights, baking cookies, decorating trees, getting together with some family members that I don't see very often, etc

That being said, I really really hate seeing xmas ads before thanksgiving, I completely agree with the way Nordstrom's doesn't decorate their stores until after thanksgiving.

I think I saw some Sears xmas TV ads before halloween. I am pretty sure they did the same thing last year. I'm assume their goal was to be the first xmas commercial people saw and therefore hopefully customers would remember Sears and go shopping there. For me (and my roomate as well who was watching TV at the same time) the Sears commercial had the exact opposite effect, we both commented on how it was too early for xmas commercials. I personally won't be shopping at Sears because of those commercials, they seemed pretty desperate.

 

Somebody stop the x-mas music on the radio.

 

Aren't a good deal of the "traditional" non-Christian Christmas activities Pagan anyway? I'm pretty sure that's where the idea of Christmas trees originated. Too lazy to fact check. Something about how early Christians wanted to hide their beliefs by celebrating the Birth of Jesus by hiding behind all the Winter Solstice shenanigans.

Celebrating Winter Solstice is WAY more fun anyway.