EDITORIAL: Have yourself a merry little Christmas – just not in October
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, in every store you go.
Prelit and flocked trees, ornaments, 20-foot-tall inflatable snowmen and jingling bells made an appearance in both brick-and-mortar and online retail stores well before Halloween.
To quote The Grinch, “Hate, hate, hate. Hate, hate, hate. Double hate. Loathe entirely.”
Sure, the holidays are the most wonderful time of the year, but what makes them so special (at least for us) is anticipating their arrival.
Those of us of a certain age can recall the days when the Christmas season didn’t start in earnest until Dec. 1. It was accompanied by hustle and bustle at stores, as customers made a list, and perhaps checked it twice, of the gifts they hoped to purchase for loved ones.
Now, Mele Kalikimaka is the thing we say on Oct. 1. If this keeps up, someone will have to add a whole lot of gifts to the 12 Days of Christmas.
The practice of moving back (and back, and back) the start of the holiday season is called the Christmas creep. Hoping to turn the best possible profit, stores start selling yuletide items early.
Sure, retailers rake in the dough by doing this, but starting the holly jollies months before the big day desensitizes us to how special the Christmas season should be.
The magic of this most wonderful time of the year is in its brevity. Three months of Christmas is too long.
Before you hang your newly purchased stockings by the chimney with care, take a moment to think about whether Santa Claus should be giving Michael Myers a high five as they swap places on the sales floor.
We know there’s no stopping retailers from engaging in the Christmas creep, but you can wait to ring the silver bells while you dance the jingle bell rock.
As The Grinch learned, “Maybe Christmas … doesn’t come from a store. Maybe Christmas perhaps means a little bit more.”