While frantically running around Birmingham two weekends ago looking for a few last-minute finishing touches to my Rocky Horror costume, I found myself repeatedly assaulted by the Big Man in Red. Yes, the week before Halloween, it was already beginning to look a lot like Christmas. My shock at the early arrival of Santa Claus turned more to disgust and horror with every store I entered, with the exception of Halloween Spirit, where I found my feather boa.
The Riverchase Galleria is already decked with boughs of holly, and Christmas music echoes through every store. Looming over the food court are the giant jingle bells suspended from sparkling red ribbon that are hung every year. Even as I write this, a commercial for the Christmas Open House in downtown Starkville is airing on the TV behind me.
Last I checked, it was fall, and I don’t mean the way that winter in the South always feels like fall. It will still be fall for another month. Last I checked, Christmas was two months away; that’s one-sixth of a year. Not only am I not ready for the Christmas rush, I haven’t even convinced myself yet that Thanksgiving is as close as it is.
So what’s the deal, you crazy capitalists? Why are you forcing Christmas on us? Oh, right, because we are consumers, and we buy everything from your ridiculous notion that “Christmas is around the corner so start shopping now!” to the limitless products you’re hawking. Something’s gotta give, folks.
Wal-Mart, Target, J.C. Penney, Macy’s and numerous other retailers are hoping to get shoppers started earlier. Home Depot had their Christmas trees and decorations displayed at the beginning of October. Costco says they have always put out their Christmas wares as early as September.
Most malls begin decorating for Christmas at the beginning of November, and while this does give consumers enough time to appreciate Halloween in all its orange-and-black, Jack-O-Lanterns-and-witches glory, this doesn’t allow any time to recognize the harvest beauty of Thanksgiving or, well, any regular day in those two months.
According to the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, the phenomenon of drawing out the Christmas season longer and longer is called the “Christmas creep.”
The logic behind the creep, according to retailers, is that since the holiday season is the biggest shopping season of the year, if it is extended for a few weeks, sales will continue to extend as well.
This seems ridiculous, as people obviously don’t continue to buy more Christmas gifts as the season extends. Most sane people, aside from the lunatic stay-at-home moms, put their shopping off until mid-December anyway. So it would seem that logic is faulty. If it’s really true that people continue to buy for as long as the holiday season lasts, then what is it about the red and green that makes us want to buy?
Another point retailers make is that by extending the season, they are also lessening the number of sales and promotions they offer, causing people to be more inclined to buy at full price, especially if a person comes across an item they think might not be available in two months, when Christmas actually comes around.
Retailers have not, though, reported any significant profit increases from increasing the length of the holiday season. Moreover, some retailers have expressed concern that putting out Christmas products in October may alienate shoppers like yours truly. I prematurely left a store last Friday solely because their Christmas carols were getting on my nerves.
While my suggestion is to stop the mall madness, other shoppers seem to be embracing this steady change. The National Retail Federation reports that 40 percent of consumers plan to start Christmas shopping before Halloween this year, and since the demand is there, the retailers will continue to provide. Free economics lesson, anyone?
Some might joke that Christmas in July may actually happen in the upcoming years, but the director of the NRF said that isn’t a possibility because “the back-to-school season … is important for them, too.” Oh, those money-grubbing, soulless retailers. But really, how far can the Christmas creep continue to crawl? The movie “Christmas Every Day” comes to mind, but unless you were a child of the ’90s who also happened to have a crush on Eric von Detten, you probably don’t remember that movie.
Nowadays, Halloween and Thanksgiving are merely road blocks or side shows on the way to the screaming commercial spectacle that is Christmas. What happened to the holiday season being about relaxation? What happened to the focus resting on time spent with loved ones and all of those other sentimentalities that may sound cheesy but are actually true?
We always wish the holiday season would last longer, and we always spit out cliches about it just flying by. Have you ever thought that maybe it flies because we always blow through it without taking time to stop and smell the Thanksgiving turkey? I know it’s difficult to do when Santa is pelting us with snowballs in October, but try. The seasons go by quickly enough as it is.