"...Christmas is already here!"

Christmas is coming earlier and earlier every year. Here we are barely in October; not yet past Halloween, the elections or even Thanksgiving and I have already seen my first Christmas Display.

It was an aisle of Christmas decorations and lights. There were also shelves of “pre-wrapped” stocking stuffers with a visual display of the contents. There were boxes of cards and a rack of wrapping paper rolls and ribbons.

We haven’t even advanced into fall yet. It was 85 degrees outside, the sun was shining and I was in a tee shirt, shorts and flip-flops staring at an Inflatable Santa next to a Snowman inside an inflatable Snow Globe complete with blowing snow.

Probably the tackiest of all (at least to me) was the selection of “Pre-Paid Christmas themed gift cards” that take all thought and consideration out of the gift shopping process.

I think retailers have killed Christmas. It has lost it’s magic for me and many people I know. For a lot of people Christmas is now so commercial it has become a chore. The death of Christmas is even becoming a popular theme in Hollywood as shown in the movie "Christmas with the Cranks."

Christmas has become more about buying and less about giving if I were to believe the signs throughout the store encouraging me to shop early and avoid the rush. It reminds me of an old Stan Freeberg comedy routine called: “Green Chri$tma$.”

(http://freberg.8m.com/text/greenchristmas.html).

There was a time when the approaching colder weather was a sign the holidays were coming, but now the retailers are skipping right to the mother lode of shopping and moving the season up sooner and sooner as the chase the Holy Grail of more sales.

There was a time when Thanksgiving weekend was the “semi official” start of the Christmas shopping season. What ever happened to Thanksgiving and Halloween? I guess they aren’t profitable enough to be focused on by retailers.

On a technical note: I think that moving the shopping season up earlier and earlier each year is the reason why Christmas sales are so disappointing and getting more so each year for retailers.

Christmas shopping has gotten to be such an “Un-Special” experience, it doesn’t matter when you Christmas shop anymore. Over the last few years I have heard more and more people talking about doing the Christmas shopping for the following year during the January clearance sales.

It’s ironic in a way, by moving the shopping season up earlier, consumers have taken it to an extreme and are using the retailer’s Christmas overstock situation as a bargain shopping opportunity... for next Christmas.

There is going to be a death spiral aspect to the Christmas shopping season next year only a retail consultant or bargain shopper can love. To make up for the lack of sales this year, retailers are going to make the Christmas shopping season even more "unspecial" next year by moving the season to August.

The longer and earlier shopping season will cause even more merchandise to be sold at deeper discounts the following January as holiday sales again fail to meet expectations. This will end up causing retailers to attempt a recovery the following year by kicking off the Christmas shopping season on 4th of July weekend.

This does not say good things about the country, the economy or even us as a people. I fully expect to wake up on Christmas Day and see ads in the newspapers and on television claiming there are only “365 more shopping days until Christmas!”