I just want retailers to know that I am keeping a list and checking it twice, and the naughty and nice log I compile will be the basis from which I choose where to spend my holiday dollars.
I know that Christmas is the most important season for the retail sector and that it is in businesses' interest to extend that season as long as possible, but I simply cannot stomach Christmas decorations from early November until the end of January.
Store owners, can you please restrain yourselves a bit? Because I'm not sure that you're helping your cause. This year Starbucks got some bad press for having their Christmas displays prior to Remembrance Day. And recently a cashier at one business was complaining to customers about the Christmas music playlist that she had already had to listen to for a week and was dreading hearing for the next six.
My kids were reminding me the other day that we had a hard and fast Dec. 1 rule at our house: nothing Christmas, no mention until the calendar turned. My task would be to complain about the shallowness of Christmas and to get the lights up prior to Dec. 25 (although, truth to tell, that was a hit-and-miss proposition most years). And sometime around the middle of December, we would traipse under the power lines and search for the "perfect" Charlie Brown tree.
As a result, my kids were always excited for the holiday. When December rolled around, they could open the Christmas chest, decorate their rooms and pull out the Christmas CDs. It was seasonal. The month of December was given to Christmas - and my Scrooge-like cantankerousness was part it.
Now, Christmas season is no longer a special event; it's just become a quarter of the year, kind of like summer or autumn. We're so inundated with Christmas cheer that it can drive even the jolliest elf to drink. And for those of us not so jollily inclined, it sets us looking south to escape the silliness.
The bleeding of seasons and holidays into one another negates the significance and importance of these days and events. We become numb to the idea that this day or time is somehow special. Christmas in November? It's absurd. If we let that happen, we'll soon see the Easter bunny battling it out with Punxsutawney Phil, and Back to School sales in June.
