Christmas: Are they shoving it down our throats too early?

[CaseytheMuppet]

Seriously…. It's November 5, and Christmas commercials have already sprung up, we got a Christmas card in the mail today, and Toy's R Us sent in the giant Christmas magazine already! It seems like it came in REALLY early this year. What do you think?

 

[D'Snowth]

Retail ALWAYS starts up the Christmas hype IMMEDIATELY after Halloween. That's the way it's always been.

But hey, I can top that: back in late spring/early summer, before we even had 4th of July, I already saw Thanksgiving stuff in stores.

 

[Drtooth]

Retail ALWAYS starts up the Christmas hype IMMEDIATELY after Halloween. That's the way it's always been.

Immediately after?! Sometimes simultaneously or even before! The "excuse" this year is that Thanksgiving is a few days shy of a month from Christmas rather than a few days and a month before. But that's like, 3 day's difference.

But it's been like this for years. It used to even just be a week after Halloween.

 

[D'Snowth]

THEN, IMMEDIATELY after Christmas ends, the retail starts hyping Valentine's Day, which is still two months away at that point.

 

[Drtooth]

Well... More like a month and a half. Though I don't notice Target getting in Valentines stuff until maybe the mid-way point of January. While stores usually speed through the clearance periods of Valentines Day, Easter, and Halloween in a week, Christmas at least sticks around for 2. I guess because of the returns and gift cards. But only certain places I see Valentines stuff before New Years. And then, at least it's a reminder that there's candy to look forward to buying on clearance. Gets you through that dark, miserable, rewardless January. February has Valentines Day (as depressing as it is), March has St. Patrick's Day, sometimes Easter, and if you want to celebrate it the supposed death of Julius Caesar. January only has Martin Luther King day. And if you're going to honor that guy, the coldest, darkest, crappiest month is the way to go .

 

[D'Snowth]

Simply because this needs to be shared again...

 

[Slackbot]

The day after Halloween I walked into the mall and heard What Child is This and We Three Kings on the music PA thingy, and I sighed in resignation. In Atlanta, November is not a wintry month. And it's always been my opinion that Christmas comes in December, period, and of story. But they can't merchandise the daylights out of dead turkeys. On the other hand, who buys Christmas stuff this early?!

 

[The Count]

Which is exactly why Santa shouldn't have been that upset when Jack tried to take over/makeover Christmas when the man in the red coat pokes his nose in on Halloween's turf. At least we get another new musical Muppet appearance this year what with the Lady Gaga special on Thanksgiving.

 

[Drtooth]

But they can't merchandise the daylights out of dead turkeys. On the other hand, who buys Christmas stuff this early?!

They have goofy-butt hats of turkeys. There still is Thanksgiving related stuff, but understandably it's all table ware related. Now, Russle Strovers used to (and this was decades ago) make marshmallow turkeys and pilgrims. Shapeless as they were... and then of course we have that not very good looking Turkey movie, so... make of that what you will.

But much as I do enjoy Christmas, I absolutely hate Christmas music. Unless its sung by a Chipmunk or a Muppet or something. But the worst has to be the remixed garbage they play at "trendy" stores. "Baby it's Cold Outside" is bad enough. It's NOT a Christmas song, and it basically renders any version where kids sing it disgusting...even worse than Maeby and Michael's version of "Afternoon Delight")... but when a crappy fake dubstep beat is behind it, one completely inconsistent to the song's beat to boot... it's just awful beyond comprehension.

And then there's that really terrible 1990's "Winter Wonderland" cover... I don't know who sings it, but the opening is the worst Soundtrack Dissonance ever. When they do the opening bit about "Over the hill is a mantle of white" (or whatever), it sounds like the soundtrack to a low budget horror film about a serial killer. It almost mimics the music they play when Jason's about to sneak up on campers. And then when it finally gets to the actually not disturbing part, it's a crap sounding 1990's synth pop ballad. And we're getting an extra couple weeks of hearing that.

And NO ONE ever plays Snoopy and the Red Baron! Ever! That's my favorite Christmas song. Even more so than Weird Al's 2 classic holiday hits.

 

[Muppet fan 123]

In Canada, Thanksgiving was last month, so there's really no sign of anything else besides the Christmas season right now. Which is fine, becuase I love the Christmas season, but now it'll be about two months of Christmas, and that really takes away from the special-ness of the time of year, doesn't it?