I am out shopping, and I have to check my phone for the date. Each year, it seems that the holiday season comes earlier and earlier, but has it arrived earlier this year than in years past? Without question, the holidays are popular. The lights, the gifts, the music, but this is definitely too much too early. It's not even Thanksgiving, but it looks like Christmas everywhere.
Back home in mid-October; my mom and I were buying candy to pass out to the trick or treaters. As I walked throughout the store, the holiday aisles were ready, and not the Halloween ones! Ghosts and graveyards had been deserted and people are filling their carts to the brim with Christmas lights, gift wrap, bows, and candy canes. As I was struggling to find a bag of candy corn, people were searching for Christmas gifts for teachers. They were snatching items off the shelves, showing no mercy to anyone, like it's 8 p.m., Christmas Eve. People are practically mugging each other to get the last Santa hat. I stood there in disbelief, unable to look away.
A majority of my life, I have spent many Christmases with my family in New York City for the holidays. The city is beautiful with its window displays, lights, and shows adorning every inch of the city that never sleeps. New York is used to the hustle and bustle, and it gets significantly more and crazier as Thanksgiving approaches, but even New Yorkers, who don't slow down for anything, wait until October is over before they rush the season.
In 2016, the tree lighting at Rockefeller Plaza isn't until November 30 this year. It seems each year people are desperately trying to find the last Talk to Me Elmo Doll on Amazon before their children go trick or treating. But is it really worth it? Are we falling prey to commercialism even more than usual?
November 1, all the Halloween decorations are down and the holiday lights go up. That's understandable. Decorate while the weather is still reasonable. But don't turn them on! It seems that every local radio station starts the seasonal music November 1. What happened to Thanksgiving? What happened to the downtime between November 1 to November 24? Why has the excitement of December consumed the entire month of November and started devouring October? I blame the big corporations taking over. Once, the season was a season of hope and celebration. Now, it's a big money spending extravaganza that cannot even wait its turn.
Major corporations begin advertising earlier and earlier. People who work retail aren't even allowed to spend Thanksgiving with their families, because stores are capitalizing on getting started before Black Friday. Why get up early when you can start your shopping before you've digested your turkey dinner. Forget the Pilgrims, being thankful or spending time with family, get to Best Buy and Kohls for the deals!
The holiday season isn't going to stop coming early, and it's not going to get less commercialized unless we do something. We have the power to prevent it. If consumers resist the temptation to shop early and refuse to shop on Thanksgiving, retailers will have no reason to push so hard and so early.
I want to kick back and watch Michael Myers and Freddy Krueger wreak havoc on unsuspecting teenagers while enjoying the rest of my sister's hard-earned trick or treating Nestle Crunch bars and Milky Ways before I sit down with a good cup of hot chocolate and watch "It's a Wonderful Life."
