It’s the first half of September, which means that it’s time to celebrate our favorite holiday. No, not Halloween or Thanksgiving: The best holiday of all is Christmas/Halloween Mashup, as the classic animated film The Nightmare Before Christmas taught us all. The demands of seasonal displays mean that Nightmares Before Christmas also appear in the real world. Sometimes it’s even done well. [More]
christmas creep
Christmas Creep Season Kicks Off Nationwide
By 9.21.16
Every holiday has two seasons: its actual season, and its creep season. The latter is that time of year during which people complain that it’s too soon to be selling decorations, cards, costumes, or other items for that holiday. Even things that aren’t really holidays can creep up, like back-to-school season. Here are some Christmas Creep sightings from across the country, so you’ll know where to pick up an artificial evergreen in mid-September for future reference. [More]
Retailers Are Wearing Us Down: Shoppers Don’t Mind Holiday Creep So Much
By 9.20.16
Holiday Creep, and more specifically Christmas Creep, are common annoyances of modern shopping. When the school supplies disappear from shelves, the Christmas trees and lights appear, making shoppers feel like the holiday season begins earlier and earlier every year. This is becoming more normal, though: some recent survey results show that fewer Americans find Christmas Creep less annoying than in previous years. They’re wearing us down. [More]
Please Stop Sharing This Photo Of A Nordstrom Anti-Christmas Creep Poster
By 11.10.15
Here in the Consumerist Cave, we’re always amused when a photo or a story makes a complete lap of the newsosphere, and a reader sends it to us having no idea that it originated with us. This week, things are starting to get strange, as social media users are sharing and even legitimate news outlets are posting a small, blurry camera phone photo of a sign posted at Nordstrom about their Christmas decorations policy. A photo that we posted six years ago. [More]
Macy’s Herald Square Welcomes The Start Of Fall By Putting Up Christmas Decorations
By 9.23.15
Twinkling lights have been hung on boughs of evergreen with care, sparkling ornaments are shining merrily in their Christmas trees and Santa’s sleigh waits, gleaming and ready, behind a velvet rope. All before the first official day of fall, at Macy’s Herald Square in New York City. [More]
The Santa Bear Horde Is Ready To Devour Us All At Kmart
By 9.16.15
If you love super cute and super affordable Santa teddy bears wearing knitted hats and scarves, and you also love getting way ahead on your Christmas shopping, Kmart is the place to go. Reader Alan snapped this picture of the adorable yet soulless horde, pleading with us all to join them in a shopping frenzy. [More]
Fred Meyer Kicks Off Christmas Decoration Season On Labor Day
By 9.8.15
While Alaska is closer to the North Pole than the rest of the country, that doesn’t mean that the Christmas season starts any earlier there than it does in the Lower 48. Unless, of course, you’re retailer Fred Meyer. Or does the Christmas season start on Labor Day everywhere now? [More]
Reminder: Hallmark’s Ornament Launch In July Is Not Christmas Creep
By 7.7.15
We take a firm stand against Holiday Creep, which is when retailers start to merchandise and decorate for a given holiday months in advance. The offending holiday is usually, but not always, Christmas. Every year around this time, we hear from exasperated shoppers who walk by a Hallmark gift shop and see their display of new Christmas ornaments, leading our readers to wonder what this world is coming to. Yet Hallmark’s Christmas displays aren’t what they seem. [More]
Hobby Lobby Misses Prime Opportunity For More Christmas Mashups
By 5.21.15
Hobby Lobby, a chain of craft and home decor chains, is infamous on this site for two things: being the first retailer to put out Christmas merchandise every year, and for taking advantage of that fact by making glorious “Nightmare Before Christmas” trees, or Christmas trees covered with beautiful fall leaves and acorns. That’s why we’re disappointed in them: if they’re going to get Christmas decorations out in May, why not double-celebrate other holidays too? [More]
When Is The Right Time For Santa Claus To Set Up Shop At The Mall?
By 11.14.14
There’s Christmas Creep, and then there’s showing up so early to the party that your guests aren’t even aware they’ve been invited yet. At least one mall in these United States has already ensconced the seasonal Santa Claus in his digs, surely giving some Christmas Creep curmudgeons out there a case of the grumbles. [More]
PayPal Says That The Holiday Shopping Season Began On September 30th
By 10.29.14
Here at Consumerist, we’ve been complaining about Christmas Creep for the better part of a decade, but maybe it’s time to admit defeat. The American public has apparently accepted retailers’ efforts to force the holiday shopping season to begin even earlier. According to PayPal, Americans kicked off the unbridled commerce season sometime in the evening on September 30. [More]
Target Baiting Holiday Shoppers With Free Shipping On All Items This Season
By 10.22.14
There’s nary a bit of frost on the ground and yet it’s time for retailers to start gearing up for the holidays. Getting off to a running start today is Target, announcing that starting today it’ll offer free holiday shipping on everything it sells online for the first time. [More]
Christmas Trees Now Found Next To The Patio Furniture
By 9.22.14
What season is it? We can’t blame shoppers for being confused when they wander into this seasonal mashup at Menards. When the timing is a little off in a store’s Seasonal section, things get kind of strange. Of course, Christmas stuff out on display in late September is no longer jarring to Consumerist staff. If it’s after Labor Day, Christmas merchandise on the shelves no longer fazes us. With patio furniture, though? [More]
Hallmark’s Ornaments Christmas Creep Up On CVS
By 9.10.14
In our years of posting about the retail menace that is Christmas Creep, we have developed a list of situations that are not eligible to be declared Christmas Creep. For example, craft stores know that you’re starting your Christmas crochet projects in mid-August, and Hallmark always introduces its Christmas ornaments in July. Yet Hallmark has taken its ornament collection to CVS, and reader Victoria is not pleased. [More]
Here’s Hobby Lobby’s Nightmare Before Christmas
By 9.8.14
We complain about holiday mashups and Holiday Creep, but we secretly love “Nightmare Before Christmas” displays, where retail necessity meets art, and cool holiday mashups ensue. Hobby Lobby puts out their Christmas merchandise early, even by craft store standards, and we have gradually grown to enjoy these Halloween trees, even as it’s fundamentally wrong to celebrate the coming of autumn with evergreens. [More]
Kmart Airs What Is Totally Not A Christmas Commercial
By 9.8.14
Last year, discount retailer and aspiring landlord Kmart kicked off its Christmas marketing early. Really early. Last year, the chain waited around until September 10 to start airing its first Christmas ad. This year, they moved that start date up, presumably so people who chatter about retail would complain about the early start date and embed the ad. You win, Kmart. [More]
Christmas Tree-Shaped Ice Cream Is Here In Time For, Um, Summer
By 8.11.14
What better way to celebrate “Christmas in July” than breaking out Reese’s peanut butter cups shaped like pine trees? Yeah, we didn’t think that it was such a good idea, either, especially since it’s no longer July. However, the freezer case at Walmart disagrees. [More]
Canada Discovers Christmas Creep At Costco, Blames America
By 8.1.14
The United States isn’t responsible for everything that’s wrong with the world, but we certainly can accept the blame for one global menace: Holiday Creep. Specifically, Christmas Creep. Now the CBC is using the emergence of Christmas décor in July as evidence that Americans are nothing but soulless mall-romping monsters. [More]
