No, it’s not another rant, but this is still September and I see Christmas things everywhere. Retailers: it’s not Christmas! It’s not even November!
When I was a kid, the end of the year brought three very different and distinct events in this order: Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. These days we barely see anything related to Halloween except candy, Thanksgiving is used only to sell us premade gravy, but Christmas has overshadowed everything and now dominates the season.
Christmas is a full three months away, yet I’ve been seeing nation stores (Home Depot in Pennsylvania, Sears in New York, and now J.C. Penney in Chicago) with massive Christmas displays and trinkets for sale. Who is buying Christmas decorations now?!!
Imagine how we’d laugh if Hallmark put out the Valentine’s Day candy in November? Or if the Independence Day fireworks started going off in May? We would all think that it’s ridiculous, but that’s the same amount of time before Christmas that retailers are now pushing items made for that season on us.
But it must be working. Someone has to be buying it or floor space would not be devoted to these items, but what are we doing to ourselves? Have we forgotten the meaning of Christmas and the entire holiday season? It’s not about what you can buy and the deals that you can get – although, sidebar, I’m all over those deals for stuff I’ve been itching to buy all year long – it’s about your family. It’s about appreciating each other and the time that you spend with each other. And if you’re religious, it’s about the sacrifice that one person made so that all would be saved.
Does that sound like something that should be squandered on $1.99 ornaments before October even begins? People, slow down. Enjoy this season…ALL of this season.