bugs the living hell out of me... to the point I REFUSE to go to stores when they pull this crap.

I love christmas, one of my favorite holidays, but I also love Halloween, and thanksgiving, and when I see Halloween stuff being pulled down before October 15th for CHRSITMAS stuff... makes me want to wrap light strings around stock boys and choke them to death!

I love the photo. The poor skeleton is tired of Christmas already.

I guess what really bugs me about the early marketing of Christmas is that it's exactly that: marketing. It seems to me that it says a lot about our society that Christmas is about corporations sucking up as many profits as they can.

"It's time to remember what toys are all about." Sigh.

i am a bit odd about christmas. i love it, and the season itself.

in fact,

i like christmas so much, that i hate references to it before halloween. dont dilute my holiday season, dammit.

I'd pay money to see stockboys choked with light strands

I flip-flop between hating it and not caring. I mostly don't care, though, because I - like most males 18-35 - ignore any advertisements that aren't related to what I'm looking for.

Just be glad you aren't in Europe. They obviously don't do Thanksgiving, and even Halloween isn't a big deal, so Christmas starts there after Armistice Day.

@boandmichele: Before Halloween?? It shouldn't show up until Thanksgiving.

God I hate Christmas creep. Halloween is my limit. I dont want to see, hear, or think about Christmas until Im done with my quasi satanic holiday. ;)

When I worked at a large retail craft store, we were required to have our ordering done for Christmas prior to the previous Christmas.

Of course crafters need some lead time; it can take weeks to knit a sweater or hand-make all the gifts for the family. The craft store Christmas season really starts around July and ends around the second week of December.

The part about people wanting to spread Christmas over several paychecks - yes, but we can do that without blatant over-the-top marketing ploys. If I want to start buying gifts now, I can. And buying cheesy snowman decorations can wait until after Thanksgiving, just like the tree.

You know what happens when you carve your Halloween pumpkin too early? It rots before Halloween.

They're rotting Christmas.

Xmas creep does bug me, but I wont do anything about it unless I hear Xmas music, then I'm out the door!

Hallmark began putting out their "Collectible Ornaments" in JULY! I remember because I went to get a card for a wedding gift and the store people were busy clearing shelves for the collection.

To be honest, I don't really care when the christmas decorations go up. I don't mind if the salespeople wish me merry christmas or happy holidays, I just could do without the christmas muzak.

I prefer to call it, "Christmas Crap".

As far as I'm concerned, preparations for Christmas should involve a week at most. If you need to do more than that, you've blown the whole thing out of proportion and you're contributing to the problem.

I nearly lost my shit at Costco a few weeks back.

When standing in line (which takes an eon all by itself), the x-mas displays were in full effect. What was worse? the songs that were BLASTING out of the various products x-mas themed products

I don't need that in December let alone AT THE END OF SEPTEMBER!

My birthday is Nov 25, as was my dad's. Thanksgiving has always been a special holiday for me.

But it has all but been swallowed by Christmas, and it's only getting worse.

Yup, this bugs me. Halloween is the best Holiday of the year imo, with the most variance, movies, tv shows, sexy/scary costumes, and there I am...in Kroger, and 20% of their holiday section has snowmen, Santas and the rest is Halloween stuff. Lame.

It bugs a lot of people, but they still end up buying the stuff. I've been at Target during October in previous years, and had my wife complain about all the christmas stuff, only to then say "oooh look at this ornament." It attracts people and moves merchandise.

"It's time to remember what toys are all about."

That has got the be the most profound example of everything that's wrong with the commercialization of Christmas. I'm just floored.

My local Lowes has a full Christmas setup, Very weird when it's in the upper 80s and they still have the lawnmowers & grills out!

[in NE ohio]

"They know customers don't like it but don't care." If that doesn't say everything about current mass merchandising, nothing else possibly could.

Every now and then I like to give in to my irritation that they play Xmas carols BEFORE XMAS. No, dumbasses, during Advent we play ADVENT music. You don't get to use CHRISTMAS music until Dec. 25 (and then technically the season runs until Feb. 2). Decorations aren't supposed to go up until the 25th either; before that we use ADVENT decorations.

Obviously I am fully aware that this is a pipe dream, but I have a masters in liturgy, dammit, and I'm going to enjoy my self-righteous liturgical irritation now and then.

I just find it so odd, though, that secularly we start celebrating "Christmas" two months in advance and then it's OVER on the day of, when as a religious season it isn't supposed to start until the day OF, and then last for two months AFTER.

What I do do, though, is leave my Xmas lights all up until February 2. Me and the Pope, man. Me and the Pope.

The nightmare before Christmas

I'm really fine until they roll out the Christmas music. I swear I read about a study that Christmas music makes shoppers more irritated and likely to lash out at other shoppers and employees.

And yet you hear it in July these days. Thank goodness I'm not in retail this year.

It is not just XMas. In late July I saw snow throwers at a local Sears, but patio furniture was gone. In August I could not find bathing trunks locally -- I had to buy them online.

How many people in the temperate zone of the Northern Hemisphere want to buy a snow thrower in July?

For over 100 years, Nordstrom has introduced its Christmas decor the night after Thanksgiving. Thank you Nordstrom, for rocking. (Here's an article from 2000 regarding the tradition, in cas...)

At my Target they took down the summer / outdoor / bbq section a few weeks ago to make way for hallochristmas. I guess they don't realize that in South Florida the only time we can use outdoor furniture and bbq grills are during the winter!!!

Heh. I snapped a few picts at Lowes last night. They have music and everything!

[mobile.twothirds.org]

@boandmichele: I'm with you. The Christmas shopping season starts on Black Friday. While I may buy things before then, if I see ANY reference to Christmas before then, I get resentful and angry, and I've started loudly announcing WHY I'm leaving stores without buying anything.

Yeah, it's obnoxious, but how else will they notice?

@meiran: I thank my good luck that I wound up working for a place that has less tolerance for Christmas music than I do. They play it for a few hours each day in the week or two leading up to the holiday, but otherwise, we pipe in some soft jazz, classical . . . anything that isn't Christmas music.

"It gets people thinking that the holiday is coming." What? Surely, Christmas can't be in December AGAIN this year? I thought it moved to February every other year, I'm so glad LL Bean decided that I needed to know when Christmas was every freakin year.

I love Christmas, love the spirit of it, but I'm starting to really hate the creep. It was worse enough when it popped up before Thanksgiving, at least then they waited until after Halloween. Now I'm seeing giant Christmas trees for sale at Macy's, and we haven't even come close to Halloween yet.

I think it takes a lot away from Thanksgiving, and the importance of it. But stores don't benefit from Thanksgiving - most people don't give gifts.

While many, especially in government and school administration, are recently and actively seeking to lessen the physical and visual aspects of Christmas (no decorated trees, no caroling, saying "happy holidays" and renaming Christmas Vacation as "winter holiday")---mercantile establishments and marketers are going in exactly the opposite direction. Christmas in September. Buy now. Get in the spirit. Celebrate!!!! It is cognative dissonance to the nth degree and I hate it.

This past year, my husband and I had the greatest Christmas ever. What did we do?? No gifts for adults (we sent a small care package of consumable items instead), gifts for kids (a total of 4), charitable donations for work friends, no tree, no decorations and we went out for Thai food on Christmas. It was awesome!! The only downside was we caught slack from husband's mom.

@Eyebrows McGee: "Every now and then I like to give in to my irritation that they play Xmas carols BEFORE XMAS. No, dumbasses, during Advent we play ADVENT music. You don't get to use CHRISTMAS music until Dec. 25 (and then technically the season runs until Feb. 2). Decorations aren't supposed to go up until the 25th either; before that we use ADVENT decorations.
Obviously I am fully aware that this is a pipe dream, but I have a masters in liturgy, dammit, and I'm going to enjoy my self-righteous liturgical irritation now and then."

---

You're an idiot. It's like English majors always looking for a way to nitpick grammar. Enjoy your advent music, goon.

And what did you learn about using "dammit" in your Liturgy class?

@SadSam: Sorry but "gifts" that are "donations made in your name" are not gifts at all. The giver gets to feel righteous, but the reciever just ends up scratching thier head. Why not just make a donation to charity and shut up? Don't try to get double credit for one donation.

I wonder how many people still do their xmas shopping on christmas eve, despite all the hype?

@eslaydog: I think that depends very much on the person recieving the gift - i love it when people make donations instead of giving me "stuff" i neither want nor need, especially when they really have no clue about me. This year my mother made 8 quilts and donated them to a charity rather than give anything to her self-absorbed sisters.

Isn't Christmas Creep that guy that plays Santa at the 99cent Store?

I have disliked Christmas marketing for many MANY years...since I was a teenager. The creep of Christmas stuff in the stores already bugs me in a way that cannot be described. I see it as there are three holidays that happen at the end of the year.

1. Halloween. I semi-enjoy this because I like to eat candy and some of the kids that come to the door have some good costumes. My kids also enjoy the dressing up part of it.

2. Thanksgiving: Turkey. Stuffing. Mashed Potatoes. Gravy...lots of gravy. A day to cook and then relax in front of the TV with family.

2a. Day AFTER Thanksgiving: Christmas season begins

3. Christmas. Another too much food holiday. Gifts and candy.

Overall it's getting to the point that I no longer want to give/get any gifts except for my wife and kids. Send me a card and I'll be happy.

I was at Lowes buying paint last week. They already had the garden stuff gone and full of holiday crap. It was 90 degrees and I still need mulch and compost to augment the garden that is currently still putting out tomatoes.

I was in Michaels and a few other stores today and Halloween stuff is already on clearance. Michaels was really a mess and the xmas and Halloween were intermixed, that was sort of bizarre.

I didn't hear holiday music playing yet but that will put me over the edge. I can't stand holiday music in the stores and certainly not this early. Honestly when they really crank up the Christmas stuff in the stores I only go shopping for things we absolutely need like toilet paper and groceries
because I find it annoying.

The new strategy seems to be to put out merchandise prematurely and then remove it or have already put it on clearance BEFORE the peak time you would want it. Like Halloween already being on clearance or not being able to find a swimsuit in August. Stores are trying to create demand by purposely running out of things when people actually need them. They want people to panic and feel uneasy about all their purchases out of fear there won't be any left. That nightmare swimsuit purchase is supposed to make you anxious about back to school purchases, and on and on.

There is one thing all of this forced holiday crap is going to spur me to purchase. A cheap MP3 player so I don't have to listen to holiday music just to go buy basic things I need.

I actually don't mind "Christmas Creep" for the sole reason that it makes ignoring Christmas much easier. I don't think there's a single holiday in the entire world that's been bastardized more than Christmas.

The thing that really gets me is that when I share my opinions on the shallowness of what the holidays have become (which is always because someone asks "What!? You don't celebrate Christmas!? What are you, Jewish?" (for the record, I'm not)), I'm accused of being a "Grinch" or some other BS.

In the 80's "Christmas in July" was big where I lived and a majority of the stores didn't bother taking down the decorations until January.

@Eyebrows McGee: I'm adopting self-righteous liturgical irritation as my new hobby. That kinda made my day.

@bohemian: "I was in Michaels and a few other stores today and Halloween stuff is already on clearance."

To be fair to Michael's, craft stores have to turn stuff over much earlier, because crafters need a lead time before the holiday and are generally done buying stuff for upcoming holiday X a month before it arrives.

@magic8ball: We'll have a club. ;) When we're done being annoyed about Xmas, we can be irate about Mardi Gras parties on Ash Wednesday!

I hate Christmas and I think "Christmas Creep" is the cause. I really hate how it takes away from Thanksgiving, which is a holiday that I LOVE because they haven't found a way to market it into the ground.

@eslaydog:

I would generally agree, and love that Seinfeld episode, but I give to the charity that my work friends support not to my own favorite charity (although I give to that as well).

@eslaydog: Way to be a huge dick. Bravo.

I wish Christmas would go away. Just totally. Have some other holiday that's just about spending time with people rather than getting as much loot as humanly possible. But I guess Christians need a second holiday that can be all theirs so they can hold the line against pagans (irony with Christmas notwithstanding).

I wished you guys had posted this in July when the Ross near me already had their Halloween crap out and even a scattered Christmas decoration and got cussed out by several customers walking in.

@Falconfire: Better to choke the ones up higher, like the manager who told the replaceable stockboy to take down the Halloween decorations too early. Or the idiot in marketing who made that move corporate policy.

@eslaydog: What about someone that specifically asks for donations to be made to organizations of their choice, instead of getting presents?

Or is that just the gift-giver being self-righteous?

@SadSam:

I've always wanted to grill steaks for Xmas. Screw turkey and ham.