This shit should be illegal.

Not to be annoyingly incredulous, but this truly does confuse me.

If there's one thing we can always count on, it is that businesses will always do what will make a profit (or what they think will make a profit).

Is there enough of a demand for candy canes among trick-or-treaters that makes this profitable? Because nearly every person I talk to is borderline disgusted by seeing these displays so early. Or are they just talking out of both sides of their mouths?

This is about the 40th post on this crap, and i say once again: who cares?

@Moosehawk: I'd take it a step further and ban any and all cooperate entities from making any reference to holidays in advertisements in and out of store. I would allow them to carry seasonal products as they see fit but they wouldn't be able to pressure people into the "holiday spirit" like they do now.

@squatchie44: Word. I don't understand why anyone would care. Besides, I love xmas shit. "Borderline disgusted." What's wrong with these people that they're so upset over xmas decorations? How about all those ads for the analog to digital conversion. They've been advertising that a year in advance.

Yeah ... who cares? Either don't shop at these stores, or ignore the displays.

If there are SALES, then people buy them early, because it makes sense to save money.

Anyway, now I want candy canes.

@squatchie44: Obviously you care because you keep trolling the posts and commenting on them.

@ squatchie44: I care.... I hate the fact that people completely lose all sense of reason and basically become mindless, selfish zombies as soon as they see the first candy cane or shiny bow.

That said, what's sad is my birthday is Sept. 26th, and the local Dollar Tree store had the beginnings of their Christmas stuff out at least a week before then.

Happy Hallow-Thanks-Mas everybody!!!!!

There was a Home Depot flyer in my local newspaper today touting "Get ready for the holidays" Christmas trees and decorations made up half the flyer.

@crouton976: I used to work at a Dollar Tree and we started putting out a Christmas stuff in late August, starting with those little porcelain houses for Christmas villages. But I haven't worked there for about 4 years, and they were doing it before my time there, so I don't see why Consumerist is making such a fuss about it now.

Target has been playing Christmas music for two weeks.
Nothing like picking out Halloween decorations to the tune of Frosty the Snowman.

Well in all honesty it has felt like December here in DC for the whole week.

@pjorg: Neither. They're just trying to get rid of last year's inventory before the new shipments come in.

I think I'll get some candy canes to give out on Halloween.

truth be told, Halloween was like Sept 30th this year. I remember because I was at Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party and it was still Sept...and everyone thought I was the Joker, even though I was clearly dressed up as Ferb from Disney's Phineas and Ferb. Not every goof ball with Purple Pants and Green Hair is the Joker...also I am hoarding these little Bakagun things so your kids can't have them for christmas and mine can.....since last month was already halloween, Thanksgiving was last thursday and I've already finished christmas shopping.

I feel bad for Thanksgiving. :(

@jsbeagle:

Great idea! And for 99 cents a box, you can't go wrong!

@jsbeagle:
I was just thinking the same thing. I would have LOVED to get candy canes at Halloween when I was a trick-or-treater!

@crouton976: I also care, since xmas tends to depress me. It's depressing to know that it's on its way, and I'll be glad once it's over.
(this coming from someone who has no one but two cats...the holidays can be tough for people like me).

I was just at Target at least half the halloween stuff is already gone (no costumes, whatsoever) and the Christmas stuff was being put together. I have this theory that in some point in my lifetime "Christmas in July" will be a reality....

@me and the sysop: You're comparing two completely different things with the analog/digital conversion. That's a one time mandatory change because of law that some people might not know of. Christmas is the same time every year but the "seasonal" items are making their way out earlier and earlier each year.

So if I give out candy canes to the trick or treaters this year, think my house will get egged?

And this is why I've grown to loathe the way Christmas is handled by retail.

Heh, I wish I had pictures of the Lowe's store I was in three weeks ago... they had an entire BUILDING already devoted to Christmas trees and the like, and this was EARLY October.

Let them do this Christmas creep thing. There will always be people that will go crazy over the first Christmas item they find and I'm sure that introducing Christmas items early maximizes profit for these types of people. I don't really see any reason why I should despise this practice, since it is one of the few ways that these businesses can make more money and it not affect what I'm paying (I think..)

Now if you want to be a really good consumer and just in case someone doesn't already know, buy all your Christmas stuff in January, if you got the storage. My local Target was practically giving away stuff at the end of January since they needed space for Valentine's day.

Heresy and somesuch!

Is it really not okay to buy Christmas stuff well in advance of Christmas? What are we supposed to be afraid of here?

I've been hearing a lot of stuff on the radio about how credit card companies are decreasing the limits on some people's accounts. The newscaster always mentions how this is happening right before the holiday season. Maybe xmas selling is being moved up in anticipation of the economic slowdown companies will face around xmas time.

Just a thought. I could personally careless one way or the other. I go shopping on Nov 1st for candy and right after the new year for candy canes. I'll be hiding under my bed on the 25th in case Robo-Santa comes down from Neptune.

Ok, I think we can be done with these Christmas Creep posts now. They were interesting when a store or two had displays up, but now everywhere you go it's Christmas.

If this troubles people, the solution is easy. Don't buy any Christmas stuff when it's put on sale early. The only reason stores do this is that people buy things early when given the option. If people want it, I see no problem with "Christmas creep".

So when exactly are stores allowed to start putting up Christmas displays? This was somewhat interesting when in august but it's November seems reasonable to me.

@pjorg: I don't think Consumerist is being completely fair, though I hate the practice as well. Most people will shop on December 23-24 anyway, or so I thought until I saw this in the paper today:

"Many consumers carp at retailers for mixing the holidays, but it turns out more than 40 percent of them say they start their Christmas shopping ahead of Halloween, according to a recent survey conducted by BIGresearch for the National Retail Federation.

A Wal-Mart-sponsored survey this year found that 3 in 10 of so-called Wal-Mart moms planned to start their Christmas shopping three months early."

Source: U-WIRE via Ka Leo O Hawai'i

Even Festivus isn't immune to holiday creep! [www.festivuspoles.com]

so weird. i was just at that store

The thing is, its not the stores fault. i work at CVS and its a pain in the rear when we start getting halloween stuff on the delivery in july and have to store it in our tiny back room. Then when we get a plano for it in like september shoved down our throat, we need to set up seasonal. Then we get Thanksgiving stuff mid September, the Christmas stuff gets piled ontop of that. We run out of space very fast and have to get it out.

I work at Rite Aid and we've had our Christmas stuff up for about 2 weeks now. People actually buy Christmas stuff this early, that's why we put it up so early.