A warning to those among you who might be tempted to swipe a package from the piles covering doorsteps right now, at the height of the holiday shopping season: You might not open it to find anything you’ll like, and that includes a box filled with poop. [More]
christmas
Survey: 4-In-5 Consumers Say They Won’t Be Spending More This Holiday Season
By 12.11.14
Consumer spending this holiday season got off to a rather slow start last month when fewer people hit up retailers over Black Friday weekend. And that trend of spending less likely won’t change in the final few weeks of 2014 if a new holiday spending survey is to be believed. [More]
Why A Village With 500 Residents Mails More Than 10,000 Christmas Cards From Its Post Office Every Year
By 12.10.14
How is it possible that in a village that boasts a population of only about 500 people sends more than 10,000 Christmas cards from its post office every year? Is it because each person in town has 20 friends? Or is it because the town has something special to do with Christmas? [More]
Michigan Cops Playing Sneaky Santa Pull Over People To Give Them Gifts Instead Of Tickets
By 12.10.14
What’s the worst thing you can see in the rearview mirror? Police lights flashing as a cop tells you to pull over (that or an avalanche/tornado/mob of goblins chasing you). So for Michigan drivers who stopped for the long arm of the law realized they were getting a treat instead of a ticket from sneaky Santa police, Christmas came extra early. [More]
Kohl’s Stores Will Stay Open For 100 Hours Straight Leading Up To Christmas
By 12.9.14
Nothing says Christmas spirit like the constant neon glow of an open department store’s lights: Starting Dec. 19, Kohl’s says most of its stores will remain open for 100 hours straight leading up to Christmas. [More]
Most Of The Stuff You Want For Christmas Will Be Cheaper After Christmas
By 12.9.14
What’s on your wish list this holiday season? Without even looking, we’re guessing that clothing, home electronics, fitness equipment, and computers are on lots of folks’ lists. But if you’re looking to actually save money on these items, maybe it’s best to wait until after Dec. 25 to open your gifts. [More]
Scary Santa Strikes Again: Send Us Photos Of Your Kids Freaking Out With Costumed Mall Characters
By 12.9.14
Maybe you were kid-free in 2012, and last year your wee one was just a perfect angel when it came time to visit Santa Claus at the mall for that traditional photo opportunity. But if your kid freaked out at the sight of St. Nick or had a meltdown when faced with a costumed Frozen character, this year is gonna be yours. [More]
New Entrants For Santa’s “Naughty” List Emerge After Neighbor Catches Teens Stealing UPS Packages
By 12.8.14
Tis the season: While American shoppers have been buying presents for loved ones in a quest to secure a spot on Santa Claus’ “Nice” list, there’s also the “Naughty” side of the population, set on snatching those gifts like the patron saint of holiday swiping, the Grinch himself. [More]
California Mall Replaces Santa Accused Of Turning Away Autistic Girl Over Her Service Dog
By 12.2.14
Perhaps the only thing worse than being terrified by a mall Santa Claus is not getting to hang out with the guy when your heart is set on it. The family of a 7-year-old autistic girl in California says the youngster was “heartbroken” when she didn’t get to see Santa after a 30-minute wait, because he didn’t like the look of her service dog. [More]
Price Of Doing 12 Days Of Christmas Up 1%, Will Now Cost $116K
By 12.1.14
A year ago, the annual cost of acquiring all the gifts enumerated in the classic, if irritating, carol “The 12 Days of Christmas,” added up to a record $114,000. The latest numbers are in and the good news is that things haven’t changed that much; the not-so-good news is that you probably don’t have $116,000 to toss away on the lark of making the song’s lyrics manifest. [More]
City Is No Charlie Brown, Kicks Ugly Christmas Tree To The Curb
By 11.24.14
The opportunity to play the sad Christmas tree music from Charlie Brown in the context of an actual sad, ugly Christmas tree story doesn’t come around too often, but today is that day: The town of Reading, PA is ditching a tree deemed too pathetic and unseemly for the public eye in favor of a newer, more pleasing to the eye specimen. [More]
Starburst Introduces Christmas-Themed Jellybeans For Some Reason
By 11.19.14
Here at Consumerist, we’re fascinated with holiday mashups: items that we associate with one holiday re-purposed for another, usually for marketing reasons. Items like pumpkin spice egg nog and Independence Day candy corn exist because the makers of candy corn and egg nog want to expand these festive treats out to other holidays. Now let’s welcome Christmas jelly beans to the holiday mashup fold. [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]
Dillard’s Pulls Sign From Girls’ Department Asking Santa For A “Fat Bank Account” & “Slim Body”
By 11.11.14
Complaining about getting a fat body and a slim bank account for Christmas instead of vice versa sounds like something one might see in a Cathy cartoon ([sweat marks!] “Bikini season, ugh!” [sweat marks!] etc.) But for some reason, a Dillard’s department store decided to display that joke on a decorative sign posted in the Girls section of the stores, asking Santa to please bring a “fat bank account” and slim body. [More]
Amazon Building Warehouses Everywhere, Hopes Christmas Gifts Actually Arrive By Christmas
By 9.26.14
Holiday time is shopping time in America, and millions of families turn to Amazon to get their gifts. But last year, Santa’s sleigh had some trouble getting where it needed to be on time: last-minute buying, bad weather, and snafus at UPS and FedEx meant plenty of presents were still in transit when kids went looking under the tree in the morning. Some Christmas delivery miracles occurred, but Amazon still had to issue plenty of apologies, refunds, discounts, and Prime extensions. But Amazon is determined not to see a repeat in 2014, if their year of planning and building pans out. [More]
Let’s Celebrate Christmas In October 1989 With Kay-Bee Toys
By 9.19.14 — Updated: 12.21.16
We’ve been cataloging the spread of Christmas Creep, the debut of Christmas merchandise and decorations earlier in the season, for some years now, but it’s important to remember that aggressive Christmas marketing before Thanksgiving and even before Halloween is not a new phenomenon. Don’t believe us? Let’s take a trip back in time to 1989, when video game consoles, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, My Little Pony, and Transformers ruled the line drawings of the Kay-Bee Toys ad. Wait, this is really 25 years old? [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]
