Dear Retail Store: It's Not Christmas Season Yet

This is madness, and it has to stop. 

Christmas season starts the day after Thanksgiving. 

That's not now. 

I've had it.  When I walked into the store after a workout on November 16th, I shouldn't be unable to find a power bar because that whole aisle has already been replaced with seasonal holiday items.  When I go to the mall on Veteran's Day, I shouldn't see Christmas trees.  When I turn on my radio on November 2nd, I shouldn't hear a merry voice telling me that it's the most wonderful time of the year. 

Because it isn't.

Every year the retail world's Christmas Season seems to creep a little earlier onto the calendar.  I understand stores' temptation to do it: they hope that the earlier people see Christmas items, the earlier they will start shopping.  But it's gotten out of hand.

This year, on Halloween night, I went into my local CVS to grab a prescription and a diet coke.  At 6:30 that night, they had already removed all of their Halloween stuff and stocked their aisles for Christmas.

This means two things.  First, it means that it's a really bad idea to wait until Halloween night to shop for a Halloween costume.  But beyond that, it means that Christmas has now not only overwhelmed Thanksgiving, but skipped in front of Halloween as well. 

Pardon me, but doesn't it seem like the holiday celebrating the birth of Jesus, he of all those teachings about humility and showing consideration for others, should wait it's turn? 

It's not that I don't love Christmas.  I really do, as do most of the other out there, who like me, want to help preserve the sanctity of the holiday season by not stretching it into October.  I complain because I care. 

The problem with starting Christmas season too early isn't just that it takes the emphasis off of other important days like Thanksgiving and Veteran's Day that deserve attention on their own merit.  It isn't just that stretching the holiday season from one month to two months makes it feel less special.  And it isn't just that the practice is yet another example of our materialistic society emphasizing mindless consumerism over the holiday's deeper meaning.

All of those annoyances are valid, but they aren't the whole story. 

The worst part of Christmas creep is this: The holiday season is the one time a year when most working adults are allowed to eschew their obligations for two weeks and relax with their loved ones.  Getting to that point generally requires one final burst of adrenaline in mid-December to finish all of life's final non-holiday obligations for the year, and make one last mad dash to fulfill those new year's resolutions for the year before everything shuts down. 

So when Christmas carols play this time of year, a time when getting to the end of our year's to-do list is not even remotely in sight, it just reminds us of everything that's left to be done before we can relax and enjoy the music.

That's not festive.  It just adds a whole new layer of stress. 

And it needs to stop, before Christmas takes over July 4th as well.