Christmas Come Early

[Dee]

This thread isn't just about Christmas, but various big holidays here in the US that we seem to be preparing for earlier and earlier as the years go by. I don't know what it's like in other countries, so this would be interesting to hear about as well. Do other countries prepare for holidays very early in the year like we do here?

What I mean is, we see a lot of decorations, cards, and various other merchandise in stores as the year progresses for each holiday. I'll take Halloween for instance. I was at Disneyland in the second week of August and there were already Halloween decorations in some of the stores that you could purchase nearly three months in advance. Now, in a few other stores I've visited at home, I see a lot more decorations available and stores opening up that sell costumes and whatnot.

We see this happening with Christmas, too. Retailers will have special sales before the holidays. Black Friday came a bit earlier last year in the form of sales from back-to-school and before the month of Thanksgiving. I'm pretty sure I saw Christmas decorations at Disneyland, too. WTF?! I see this a lot in my store as well. We're about one to two months ahead of consumers in terms of what products we carry. We were seeing boots being shipped to us at the end of July because certain retailers sales are taking a beating.

So...what do you guys feel about this? Are we becoming a way too consumer-driven society where sales are more important than enjoying the now? Or do you think it's a smart trend to be ahead of the game?

 

[Nebulous]

For as long as I can remember, I remember going to stores 2 or 3 months prior to a holiday and being shocked that the stores are already putting out merchandise for that holiday. Seems to be a phenomenon that surprises us over and over again but it seems like it's always been that way.

 

[Dee]

For as long as I can remember, I remember going to stores 2 or 3 months prior to a holiday and being shocked that the stores are already putting out merchandise for that holiday. Seems to be a phenomenon that surprises us over and over again but it seems like it's always been that way.

They've been pushing it further and further into the middle of the year, but by small amounts. I recall it being September and seeing Halloween stores crop up by then, which made sense because Halloween was a month or two away. But now I'm seeing Halloween stuff three months out and it seems like overkill. Christmas is another holiday they tend to push earlier and earlier. They rolled that stuff out right around Halloween here and we haven't even celebrated Thanksgiving!

Another thing I notice is that the radio stations used to play Christmas music about a week or two after Thanksgiving, but last year they started playing it BEFORE. >_>

 

[Nebulous]

For as long as I can remember, I remember going to stores 2 or 3 months prior to a holiday and being shocked that the stores are already putting out merchandise for that holiday. Seems to be a phenomenon that surprises us over and over again but it seems like it's always been that way.

They've been pushing it further and further into the middle of the year, but by small amounts. I recall it being September and seeing Halloween stores crop up by then, which made sense because Halloween was a month or two away. But now I'm seeing Halloween stuff three months out and it seems like overkill. Christmas is another holiday they tend to push earlier and earlier. They rolled that stuff out right around Halloween here and we haven't even celebrated Thanksgiving!

Another thing I notice is that the radio stations used to play Christmas music about a week or two after Thanksgiving, but last year they started playing it BEFORE. >_>

According to your logic, we'll be buying Christmas tree's in July within a few years. :Lol:

But yeah it does seem like they push it back little by little and skip over thanksgiving. But then again, the Halloween section does have "Harvest" type decorations that can be used for both Halloween and Thanksgiving.

 

[Dee]

even though thanksgiving and halloween is far away, ourntown is already putting up holiday decorations. Iam sensing a lot of folks want to get head start on holiday shopping and planning before the actual crush. Last year, we celebrated both thanksgiving and christmas a week before the real holiday came. More and more iam seeing less interest in tradition and emphasizing more on rush/quicky preperations

What's funny is that last year, and this is coming from a retailers perspective (here, at least), people did not start shopping for Christmas presents until maybe the week or two before. We had customers coming in at the last minute admitting they hadn't started just yet and were probably going to go online to finish their shopping. There was a trend among the US that I saw in news reports, so it wasn't just our part of the country. Apparently, putting out decorations and starting things a little early does not always encourage consumers to go out and buy, buy, buy!