Holiday Season

I tend to remember years ago if someone even so much as mentioned Christmas before Thanksgiving, (the 4th Thursday in November) people would give you all kinds of lectures on commercialism. They would tell you that the Christmas season and holiday shopping does not start till the day after Thanksgiving.This year Halloween was not even over and Christmas decorations and gift boxed items were already going up in stores. Funny thing is that no one is complaining about it or even seeming to notice.

I went shopping this week. Mind you, it is still a week before Thanksgiving, not only were all the stores full of various Holiday season decorations, but there was Christmas music playing in many of the stores. Even more unusual was that the store employees seemed to be enjoying it.

What happened to the cries of commercialism and lectures on when the holiday season is supposed to begin?. Could it be that people are in the Holiday spirit already? Could it be they are just taking advantage of being able to shop early to beat the rush, or do people just not care any more? It’s not as though they can do anything about it anyway.With the cost of holiday gift giving these days you have to start months before the holiday not to feel the horrible pinch of the Santa money belt.

Many stores have done away with the layaway so waiting and getting everything right before the holiday when everything is on sale is out of the equation.. So paying full price for having to shop early is going to also cost the seasonal consumer more. Do the stores think the buying public won’t notice?

Probably the majority will notice their money is not going as far but will not fully realize that it is due to the creative thinking of the department stores executives raising their bottom lines.

I have to wonder if there is ever going to be a point where people say enough is enough. Some times I think the everyday people have just given up; perhaps feeling there is nothing we can do but just suck it up and go with the flow..

Companies downsize. cut bonus’. find ways to keep their employees from making more money while the cost of living keeps getting higher. People have to work more hours and harder to fill in the spaces of the smaller labor forces and paycuts. The outrageous fuel prices cause a trickle down effect touching every part of our lives. And now the holiday season starts in mid October instead of the end of November.

It just keeps getting worse every year.. People are too tired to fight back.. Too tired to complain or organize ways to get around the system.. It seems instead, that people are embracing the fact that they can start their holiday shopping early so they don’t have to do all that last minute crash shopping. They are willing to pay the non-sale prices just to get an early start..

I guess I have to admit, when I went shopping with my husband earlier this week I was doing some early Christmas shopping myself. I got a couple things that were hard to find items.. I enjoyed looking at the decorations and sang along with the occasional holiday song..I didn’t complain aloud about the early holiday setups.On the way home I just enjoyed the colorful leaves on the trees that the late autumn has left behind.. I thought myself quite clever to be ahead of the holiday shopping game..

Now, I am shaking my head with a little grin, knowing I fell right into the store’s game plan and paid more and earlier; just helping their before holiday season bottom line..Oh Well…. Fa La Lala la.. lala la la 🙂