Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I am beginning to absolutely loathe this holiday... Christmas has overflowed its traditional borders, annexed Thanksgiving and begun laying siege to Halloween even..It starts too freakin early!!..... I was seeing Christmas stuff in the stores as early as late september. This can't keep going on. It's gotta stop.
The sad thing is I used to love Christmas. It was my favorite holiday, I loved the lights, the trees, the peppermint everything, the amazingness of it all, the eggnog, the crinkly paper. I was in love.... butterflies and all. The problem is Christmas has completely overstepped it's bounds on the calendar. I'm so freakin sick of it by the time it gets here. . . What about Thanksgiving? lol, nevermind...Thanksgiving has been swallowed up entirely. It's a damn goner. More and more retailers are kicking off Black Friday sometime Thursday evening. Forget Thanksgiving dinner....now ppl need to camp out in parking lots waiting to catch a sale on a flat screen TV... who needs Thanksgiving anymore? We've got black friday eve to get to!
This hyper-consumerism is exhuasting. The christmas carols are tired, Mariah Carey's All I want for Xmas pretty much makes me ill.
Can we all agree to not start celebrating the xmas holiday season until after Thanksgiving?? And return Christmas to it's rightful spot on the calendar.
I agree, but often times, the retailers "push it" because if it is going to be less days til Christmas... some years because of the way Christmas falls they are short a weekend.
I agree, Christmas to me is nothing but a religious holiday. We do it very low key now. I agree, I dread it.
I like Thanksgiving, pig out into a food coma, don't have to work, be with my family with no stress of the gifts, watch football, it's all good.
Although if people want to shop on Thanksgiving I say let them. Just won't be me... movie theatres and gas stations have been open forever on Thanksgiving.
I agree, but often times, the retailers "push it" because if it is going to be less days til Christmas... some years because of the way Christmas falls they are short a weekend.
I agree, Christmas to me is nothing but a religious holiday. We do it very low key now. I agree, I dread it.
I like Thanksgiving, pig out into a food coma, don't have to work, be with my family with no stress of the gifts, watch football, it's all good.
Although if people want to shop on Thanksgiving I say let them. Just won't be me... movie theatres and gas stations have been open forever on Thanksgiving.
I think movie theatres and gas stations should be open on thanksgiving, I have no issue with that. I have issue with retailers taking over thanksgiving by opening their doors at 6pm Thanksgiving night so ppl can shop for basically crap....
I have an issue with that. Let the retailer workers be home with their families!!!
I absoloutly agree with you and I can remember being a young girl and my grandmother and mother taking me into the local drugstore and telling the man who ran the drugstore that he was playing Christmas music too early and by the time Christmas rolls around everyone is so darn sick of Christmas music there is no joy in it ...
Big Business has Americans convinced that if you don't spend, spend, spend, you're a scrooge. You're trained that its offensive if you don't give everyone you know a "present" for Christmas.
Here's a tip. Don't buy ANYONE ANYTHING FOR ANY REASON. Save your money. If people are mad at you for not purchasing them a gift, too bad, they'll get over it.
I remember seeing a Christmas ad when I was a kid on TV in September. Santa was advertising the 'holiday season' and talking about good deals for a large retail chain we have here.
That was in 1999. It's the same now as it was then, you are just starting to notice it more.
Last edited by Oldhag1; 11-05-2014 at 06:09 AM..
Reason: Removed deleted quote and direct response to it - start a new thread if you want to discuss this
This isn't just a Christmas problem, though it certainly started with Christmas. I've seen Valentine's Day merchandise on the shelves right after Christmas, as in, December hasn't even ended yet, and there it is. Nothing says "I love you" quite like quite like an eight-week-old box of chocolates, apparently. And speaking of candy, I've begun to see Halloween candy on the shelves in August. Just let us celebrate one holiday at a time as the calendar dictates, OK?
With that said, Thanksgiving and Christmas have always kind of blended together for me, due to their family orientation and the travel opportunities, so I typically start to get into the mood for Christmas around Thanksgiving. In fact, I gradually set up all my Christmas lights during the week or two before Thanksgiving, though I do NOT light them up until Thanksgiving at sunset. I just want to get the work out of the way. I also wait until December 1 to set up my Christmas tree, and I keep everything decorated through the first week of January, partly because I don't start celebrating it before Halloween so I'm not burnt out on Christmas by the time it arrives.
Basically, I don't mind if Thanksgiving and Christmas blend together, but it gets absurd when we start getting Christmas shoved down our throats before we've even finished our leftover Halloween candy. The only Christmas merchandise that should be on the shelves before Thanksgiving are exterior lights since they take time to set up properly, and even then, they should only become available about two weeks beforehand. Otherwise, save it until the day after Thanksgiving. Personally, though, I buy Christmas decorations for "next year." In other words, I buy them after Christmas for a huge discount, and then I set them up the following year.
Last edited by Oldhag1; 11-05-2014 at 06:06 AM..
Reason: Language
This isn't something new.... this has been going on for years and years... and every single year we all look at each other and we say, "oh my goodness, Christmas stuff already?!"..... as we keep fooling ourselves as to thinking they put stuff out earlier and earlier.
I guess if it bothers you that much just avoid all the stores then?
Also, don't turn on the Hallmark Channel on your TV as it's now all Christmas movies all the time through December 25th...
I don't like it either, but that's the way our stores are. They constantly push customers to spend more and more money. Fortunately, that is one of the few advantages to having a horribly dysfunctional family; I only having to buy presents for my sister and her family, my gf, and my grandmother. I also don't have to spend a lot because everyone in my small family is on a budget, so a gift costing $20 or so for each person is considered perfectly OK. I've noticed a lot of people now think no one should give their friends or family anything. I don't think that's fun at all. Part of the magic of Christmas is the exchange of gifts, and not giving or getting anything would take away from some of the good cheer, so unless I really couldn't afford anything, I always exchange a little something. That's why I believe giving inexpensive gifts is a happy medium.
There are hundreds of thousands, if not millions of Americans who have jobs and extra income due to the Christmas season starting early. Demand drives the economy, and the expanded Christmas season drives demand up.
While I agree that its ridiculous to start Christmas the day after Thanksgiving, there are many Americans who see a benefit from it.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
