A reader wrote in on November 3rd to let us know that Starbucks has busted out the holiday-themed coffee paraphernalia. This gives us an idea.

Looking back through the site and our tipline, we have a couple of data points for when Starbucks first rolls out the Christmas stuff:

An unposted email from last year has a reader who found holiday-themed cups and music at Starbucks on the 4th. He asked the barista if she thought it was weird, and was told they had just rolled out the Christmas cheer that day.

Two years ago, we posted that Starbucks was using the Christmas goods on November 8th.

That’s a little earlier each year. Although they’re different stores and there’s no indication that the day they were spotted is the day they were rolled out, we’re assuming that people who visit coffee shops probably do so pretty regularly, and would have noticed and written in earlier if they’d seen Christmas creep earlier. Starbucks is a big chain, so if we can get some more data from other years and stores, maybe we could eventually track Christmas Creep, a la the Big Mac Index. So, readers, if you have any definite dates for when you’ve seen Christmas creep at Starbucks from past years or this year, or if you can remind yourself to check things out at the end of next October, send in your findings.

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