@novelgirl:

Actually, QVC had Christmas in July well....back in July for a full 24 hours. They do it every year. Scary, but it's probably a big moneymaker for them.@novelgirl:

i was pleasantly suprised to see halloween stuff out in august, i love halloween. but im going to be sick of christmas by thanksgiving.

i think people just get annoyed with the whole " you need to buy this " mood pushed on them for months at a time. guilting them into buying their children excessive amounts of toys and making them feel bad for not buying everyone at work some stupid trinket.

friendly walgreens employee chiming in....in most districts if the item is out on the sales floor then it must be have the price displayed on it. Most stores won't receive their full Christmas trucks until the end of September to mid October. Walgreens ship each store a separate "Christmas Only" truck to each store, with some things filling in space on current trucks.

I don't get the big deal about the Christmas Creep. All of the posts I've seen so far have been stores putting up decorations. *shrugs* Like I said, how many people decorate for halloween and thanksgiving?

BUY BUY BUY! BUY!! BUY!!! Why aren't you buying? You should be buying. Right now. From us. Don't you care about Christmas? You don't want everything to run out do you?

This is disgusting, and inappropriate. Why don't they just shake you by your ankles when you walk in the door?

I have boxes of 2009 Wall Calendars already sitting in my warehouse for distribution to customers. I guess I should have waited until late in December to order the calendars just in case somebody decided to change the dates or months in 2009.

Outside of Halloween candy, who cares if the stuff is sitting on a shelf?

I have no probem what so ever with Christmas merchandise being on the shelves in August. Maybe I did before I worked retail, but then I quickly realized that more than 50% of a retail business's profits occure in fourth quarter alone. So why not get a head start? If people are willing to buy it, so be it. For a lot of people out there, it's simply fun for them to get excited over Christmas "stuff". So, what's the harm?

Christmas Decorations don't count, since if you're smart, you'll have gotten the decorations before Thanksgiving.

I'm not seeing any "Christmas sales". All I'm seeing is a bunch of decorations going on sale early. You buy them now and then have less to worry about then the actual season starts.

This isn't really a bad thing and in fact it's a SMART thing to do IMO. I don't think it belongs here with the true evils of the world...Comcast and airlines and things like that.

I'm waiting for some marketing genius to do a fake discovery of new dead sea scrolls describing how Jesus has a second birthday in the middle of the year.

[s86.photobucket.com]

Yesterday my mother-in-law asked me what my kids want for Christmas. My response was that we are going to concentrate on celebrating Christmas, not consumerism. Let's all try to remember that when we are spending hundreds of dollars on stuff our kids/family members don't need. I'm sure I'll forget by Thanksgiving, though...

Just so you know, as a former Walgreens employee (ah, high school), the stuff on the tippity top shelf isn't for sale. It just goes there to be transferred down later, because the stock rooms are usually itsy and too messy for crushable stuff like wrapping paper. I guarantee in the seasonal aisle of that store, all the summer stuff is being priced to move and there is halloween candy on the top of the shelves, ready to be pulled down when they get the signal from corporate.

I buy my Christmas decorations and sometimes wrapping paper at the flea market. It's there all year, usually.

When does the Saturnalia stuff come out on display? I was hoping to get my shopping done early this year.

@no.no.notorious: Halloween wrapping paper? Um, I'm a Wiccan and I still don't do Halloween gifts, please don't give the stores more ideas.

Maybe twenty years from now, Christmas stuff will go out so early, it's actually on time for a while.

"God if I know! I've been complaining about it for ten years!"

This was the head store manager. I guess it's some higher-ups idea of a joke?
Also, the paper is not on sale. With the exception of an occasional weekly coupon for a few pennies off it is full priced until a week after christmas. Then all holiday items are dropped to 50% off. A few weeks later everything left goes down to 75% off for one week. Then it's removed or returned to a shelf at full price!

Visit a Radio Shack for proof.

I worked at JCPenneys in high school, and this is just the way things are. "Back-to-school" stocks reached the store in May, the sale started in June- some of the local schools were still in school; Christmas stock came in during the middle of August and displays were made almost immediately.

@alice_bunnie: Thanks for the link; that "Holiday Grand Plan" website is one of the most deranged things I've ever seen. My Holiday Grand Plan consists of putting up some lights, buying some presents, and wrapping them sometime before December 25.

for whatever excuse they have, it's still more disappointing/embarrassing that Christmas as become such a consumer driven holiday

Or, gripe here, and avoid going to your local retailer and shooting up the place.

Granted, at that point, you need some professional help, but it does do very good to voice frustrations.

I do have to say that the Christmas wrapping paper at Walgreens (the Color Studio stuff produced by Hallmark) is high-quality and very reasonable, even in season. Lots of good sales. I remember it being only $1.99 last season though because I bought about 12 rolls on the 26th.

Americans need to move Thanksgiving up to Canadian Thanksgiving (2nd Monday in October). We hardly ever see Christmas stuff before that, and Christmas' accepted start is November 1, the day after Halloween - gives almost a full month ahead of US Thanksgiving. Still to early for most people, though (not me, I love Christmas, but 2 months is enough).

@Christ Sabo:

Who exactly agreed that "after Thanksgiving" is the only time Christmas items should be displayed

I wrote that - and yeah I do think its conventional thought that Christmas starts after Thanksgiving. Just like, sequentially, 4th of July crap starts after Memorial Day... If you asked a bunch of people "When does the Christmas season start" I'd bet most would say after Thanksgiving. Even though the retailers don't follow it.

If it annoys you that OMG THE WRAPPING PAPER IS ALREADY HERE, then shake your head, curse the fools who buy it and move along.

That's exactly what we're doing here - since setting fire to the displays would net more consequences than worth... At least for me.

The Holiday Grand Plan begins August 31st.

i used to/sometimes still work retail, and have two comments about why this stuff is around so early.

1) stores have to order their Christmas merchandise in March/April to ensure it arrives in enough time to be inventoried and put on the shelves. some manufacturers insist on certain ship-dates, which are often in the summertime or early fall.

2) lots of people shop for the holidays year-round to get the best deals and/or are organized enough to have their shopping finished by Thanksgiving. i only managed it one year, but it was glorious.

I think ya'll complain too much.

Who cares!?

@incognit000

Exactly my thoughts. Just like violent video games and movies have desensitized us to violence, retailers have done the same for Christmas. Too much of a good thing is just that. You wouldn't eat chocolate ice cream morning, noon and night just because you loved it, would you?

I just go to my moms for wrapping paper....about 15 years ago a distributor was going out of business and i havent bought wrapping paper since.

And i like christmas so i dont mind seeing this crap now, gives me time to peruse before i complate my shopping in October.

You know, when I was a small child, I really looked forward to Christmas. It was one or two days long, it was the only real time I got presents (my birthday is in late December so it's always been lumped in with Xmas) and it was nice.

In my teens the Christmas creep began to get worse and worse, and Christmas went from a nice couple of days to a hellacious month from after Thanksgiving until the actual day, and it was to be feared.

Now it's just silly and stupid and irrelevant.

Just because it is annoying doesn't mean a business shouldn't sell the merch that people will (for some reason) buy in August. If it annoys you that OMG THE WRAPPING PAPER IS ALREADY HERE, then shake your head, curse the fools who buy it and move along.

Otherwise it is simple - if no one bought Christmas stuff this early - stores would not sell it.

Leftover from January's "after-xmas" clearance sale?