Reader Sam writes in to let us know he found some Christmas Creep at a Michaels craft store. He sent along some pictures he took in early August, 142 days before Christmas.
Check out the full set here (caption has a bad word).
Have you seen some Christmas Creep? Tell us about it at tips@consumerist.com.
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I see I am going to have to go into holiday defensive mode early this year or I will lose my mind. Last year involved avoiding the mall area as much as possible. I bought an mp3 player to drown out the music if I had to go to get food or prescriptions.
I may suggest that this year we forgo gifts and use that money to buy a trip to Vegas over the holiday.
A co-worker and I were looking around a Costco last week and we spotted Christmas junk too. Give it another ten years, and the time for Christmas will be starting in mid-January. Ten years after that? The Christmas for 2029 will have started in October of 2028. By then everyone will have jet-packs though, so it won’t be a big deal.
@brainswarm: You’re right. There’s a Hobby Lobby around the corner from my home, and I’ve seen people purchasing Christmas items already.
A lot of people around here start decorating their home the first week of November, so I’m not too surprised.
@battra92: I agree! I’m thinking of making a lot of crafty gifts myself this year because I don’t want to go broke buying gifts for everyone.
I don’t think this is a big deal. December 25th was just selected as Jesus’ birthday in order to usurp the winter solstice pagan festivals. For all we know, he was actually born in August. I for one, would not want to be caught unawares should Jesus come back on August 27th expecting a huge birthday blowout only to find that nobody had their cheap Chinese crap wrapped and ready.
@sean77: Copyright in their particular expression of putting stuff on a shelf? OK, I guess. Sounds like you’re in law school or just read an article on copyrights though.
The picture is for commentary and critcism of consumer issues and Michael’s merchandising choices (this is the most important factor-btw).
The copyright is in a merchandising display which has some/many utilitarian elements, so you have a thin(er) Copyright. Also, since the picture is of other copyrighted materials (the actual items), you also potentially have a compilation or a work that is transformative (it has a different meaning than the original). Consumerist’s use will little effect on the market (from a copyright perspective). They’re not going to shop at the Consumerist for cheap ceramic gingerbread houses.
So, do the analysis before you throw out the allegations. We’re not on Faux News y’know.
@bohemian:
Yeah, I figured it had to be a cheaper equivalent. My dad was hooked on this type stuff for years, and I never could understand it. I agree with your next comment, though. This year I’m probably going to treat myself extra nice.
@sean77: i personally give them permission, THIS TIME.
@u1itn0w2day: Those type of statements really aren’t germane. I plan for Christmas all year, and it has nothing to do with gift giving, it has to do with the pageantry. If I waited until the day after Thanksgiving to start my Christmas crafts and planning, I would spend the entire month of December busting my butt and wouldn’t enjoy any of the celebration. Because I spread it out over the year, my holidays are beautiful and full of fun, and allow me to enjoy a whole month of holiday stuff without stress. I could just not do it, but I like it. I do have a life, I am not obsessed, I’m just a good planner.
All that being said, craft stores put out Christmas stuff early because this is the time of year crafters start their holiday projects. I can forgive Michael’s. I want to know why the Dollar Tree already has a Christmas wrap display? That, IMO, is the unnecessary Christmas creep. And, as a good Christmas planner, I bought all of my wrap in January for 90% off : )
baby jesus sees this, cries.
I actually went to Michael’s recently to purchase some supplies for Christmas crafts and none were out. If I had seen these village scenes, I think I would have retched.
I went to a different craft store and Christmas, Halloween, and Thanksgiving things were out, including what I wanted. But, as numerous posters have said, it takes a while to get projects done and so supplies are good, decorations and gifts are bad!
I saw that when I was there to pick up some yarn last week. Right behind the Halloween display, there it was — Christmas in all its glory. I even thought to take a picture to send in but alas, I had forgotten my camera.
If it were crafting supplies to make things for Christmas, I could see it, but it was decorations, ornaments, all kinds of crap.
My mother used to do the whole craft fair circuit in the North East, and what she told me was that she started buying supplies of Christmas in June, and started working on them in late July/ early August, and really got revved up around Labor day, just when we were going back to school and out of her hair.
My father, who did a huge light display every year, said he started looking around Labor Day for replacement lights, and Halloween for new figurines.
Yeah, Christmas was a huge deal in my family. They went all out.
i’m actually pretty sure my local michael’s had theirs up in june/july. or there were at least SOME christmas decorations already up.
This seems more reasonable than the snowblowers I saw at Sears in July 07.
@brainswarm: Yep, chances are this is the mentality that Michael’s has. I used to be the assistant manager of a fabric store (chain store) here in Canada, and we used to be required every year to put the Xmas fabric out at the end of JULY – usually right after inventory.
Working there caused me to be so sick of Xmas, nothing like having it crammed down your throat for half of the year.
I hate to say it, but with Michael’s I can understand. You’re not just buying an item. You’re buying something you’ll have to find the time to make. Last winter I decided to make scarves for 3 people and it took me a couple of months to get them done because I work and go to school. And that was just scarves (although I was also just learning). If it was something more involved it would’ve taken more time.
@PinkBox: I agree! I’m thinking of making a lot of crafty gifts myself this year because I don’t want to go broke buying gifts for everyone.
Good idea. My problem is that with my family people never knew what to buy me so I just would get piles and piles of DVDs, most of which I never watched.
Crafty ideas seem like a good idea, or at least something small or meaningful.
Personally for my birthday I told people just to take me out to dinner.