Holiday Prep: How soon is too soon?

So I work at the good old Barnes and Noble. Pretty standard retail junk. Whatever.

Two weeks ago, we started putting out Christmas products.

I was at Kohl's 5 weeks ago, and they already had their Christmas trees and ornaments out and on sale.

Call me old fashioned, but I don't like to think about Christmas until after Thanksgiving. I can understand having Hanukkah decorations out early, due to the fact that it keeps getting earlier (I think it actually falls on Thanksgiving this year), but Christmas in September seems a little ridiculous.

I understand that the nature of retail is to sell, and having product out sooner can help drive that, but there has to be a limit, right?

As I said, I don't like to think about Christmas until after Thanksgiving. I don't like to think about Thanksgiving until after Halloween. I typically don't want to see Easter products until a month before, ish.

How early do you think is too early for Christmas/Halloween/Thanksgiving/Easter, whatever holiday you notice things being sold for?

 

Agreed. Give Halloween some credit for itself, keep the Thanksgiving shit and certainly the Christmas shit off the shelves until at least November 1. Keep the Christmas shit off the shelves and don't start playing Christmas carols on the radio until after Thanksgiving. Hey you kids, get off my lawn! Etc.

 

When I was a child, Christmas was kept tucked away all year until KAPOW! the evening of Thanksgiving when the holiday magic was made evident by the first inkling of Christmas-themed tv commercials.

And it ought to have stayed that way. Money is shitty at handling magic.

 

That's how it was when I was growing up too. My mom loves decorating the house, and there are plenty of Thanksgiving decorations that stay up until December 1st. Once that day comes, it's like the Thanksgiving ones go down and the Christmas ones go up overnight. It's amazing, and I think that's what makes me like the holiday season so much. No need to rush.

 

Speaking of holidays...
Walmart has this thing where they start playing bloody Christmas the first of November. Unfortunately the appeal of a mostly quiet night shift is completely destroyed when you can "enjoy" the same awful songs on endless loop. My personal theory is that it is an attempt to drive people to quit or commit mass homicide with the speakers and possibly a customer or two.
I enjoy hearing good holiday music in June or July but my tolerance for it in November and especially December is low at best and non-existent for the "Justin Bieber sings the songs of Christmas" kind of garbage. Just made that one up but it would would not surprise if it actually exists in some form.

 

I get LL Bean catalogs with Christmas items in September and just shake my head.
I want the Sears Wishbook back, but I don't want it showing up before Thanksgiving!

 

I echo all of the sentiments in this thread.

There's actually an isle of Christmas stuff that is right next to the isles of Halloween candy at Walmart. It's insane.

I'm honestly waiting for the day where Christmas stuff starts to get put out the day after the 4th of July.

 

I totally get that it's for money. But how many people are actually buying this shit so early? It's so early and expensive. I don't see the point.

 

Costco ribbon packs rule the world

 

I pick up xmas stuff at thrift stores and garage sales all year long. Not as much as I used to, though, because I have quite a lot of it. The only stuff I buy new every year are things like gift wrap and bags of candy.

 

I shop quite a bit before Christmas ( well, I used to ), but I don't want to see Christmas stuff before Thanksgiving. It kind of dampens the whole experience to have it around for half a year.

 

I kind of like the idea of christmas on the 26th of December through Jan 1st. That way you can buy all the returns you want. We have people on our street with christmas lights already. That should be a hanging offense!
And Halloween rocks!

 

I got rid of the useless small fake Christmas tree earlier this year. It sat in a closet for three years I think taking up space getting no use.