It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

[EinBebop]

The season seems to begin earlier and earlier every year. Last year I heard the first Christmas carol on the radio in mid-November. This year, I saw a Hallmark Christmas commercial on November 1st, and I just noticed ebay has already switched to its holiday motiff.

It does make sense, commercially. I for one have 95% of my Christmas shopping done by Thanksgiving Day, because I won't step into a Wal-Mart or the mall between Thanksgiving and New Years (crowded spaces make edgy).

And I really don't mind it, because the holidays (including Thanksgiving) are my favorite time of the year. And so the first signs of it are always really exciting for me, even if those signs are commercial in nature. ;)

[Kury Wagner]

Gah! No! Not yet. . . I'm usually one for the Holidays. I'm naturally giddy. :sweat: But I too have noticed Yule coming quickly. :ack: There's already snow in the forecast here! I'm so bad at picking out gifts for people, though. I always end up giving them something stupid. I'm shopping-impaired. :sad:

[Elven Moon]

Target had Christmas decorations and stockings and stuff for sale a few weeks before Halloween :sweat:

[Speedy Boris]

Ah yes, reminds me of some Lewis Black quotes. :D

"Every year, Christmas gets longer and longer, and you don't care, do you? You just take more of the calendar for yourselves. How long does it take you people... TO SHOP?!?!"

(on Thanksgiving) "When I was a kid, you ate, you drank, and you passed out, and NOBODY woke you up and said, 'Let's go shopping!' "

"When I was a kid, Halloween was Halloween, and Santa wasn't poking his ASS into it!"

"Thanksgiving used to be separate and it was its own holiday, NOT Christmas, Part One."

Yeah, I just saw a Christmas commercial on Nov. 1st. Kinda ridiculous.

[Kury Wagner]

Ah yes, reminds me of some Lewis Black quotes. :D
OT: Lewis Black is so hilarious! Him and Mitch Hedburg are my favorite comedians! :D

[auto]

Actually last year the first Christmas ad I saw was for a CGI remake of Rudolph (sp?) the Red Nosed Reindeer in mid-October. Costco was selling christmas decorations a few weeks before halloween.

The only Holiday ads I saw on November 1 were, One Mastercard ad, One Hallmark ad and one ad for The Polar Express movie (if that counts).

[ZorBrak]

It only looks like Christmas to the corporate world this early.

[Czar Gato]

I saw Christmas setups in some stores in August. I love said holiday, but this is too much. :shrug:

[TimTwoFace]

I love Christmas but I don't like it being so public so early. In our family we don't do anything Christmas-related until the first Sunday of Advent, which this yera is November 28th, I believe. Others just start with December 1st. Either or is fine by me - but roping it into American Thanksgiving, Remembrance/Veterans Day, and in some very extreme cases, dates prior to Halloween, is just crazy.

It's all about the merchandising in this case. Yeah, I do some Christmas shopping early, too, but I don't want to see those ads on the air until the dates I mentioned. That's my own personal preference.

-Tim

[ZephyrSamba]

I'm so bad at picking out gifts for people, though. I always end up giving them something stupid. I'm shopping-impaired. :sad:Hee, I feel your pain -- I'd never had a term to put to it before, but I'm definitely "shopping impaired," too =P I've actually had people tell me -not- to get them stuff that looks like things -I'd- like (I guess we can't -all- see the true joy of chicken socks or impossibly purple jumpers -- there's just no accounting for taste =) My approach to Xmas shopping, then, is to bombard everyone with a -ton- of gifts in the hope that they'll at least like -one- of the things I've gotten; playing the percentages is the only way I have any chance at all...

Ah well...I dread and loathe the shopping but even so, I have to admit I'm a big ol' cheeseball and absolutely -love- the holidays. I don't care how early they start showing up in stores, the first time I see a display of Xmas ornaments or hear some goofy old holiday song I just get an extra little bounce in my step...Bring on the Yule Tide, I'm ready for it!

[purplehairedwonder]

Speaking of, an ad for "Now That's What I Call Christmas 2" just came on the TV. That and Christmas episodes of some shows have been popping up as well.

There's already snow in the forecast here!Bah, we had snow a couple of weeks ago, and it took days to melt. That and it snowed today as well, but didn't stick. It's been freezing the last month or so.

I can't wait until after Thanksgiving when people put up Christmas lights. Sun going down early and Christmas lights = sweet.

[WingZombie38]

What Lewis Black said, definitely. :p

My family usually starts Christmas celebration around the week of my sib's birthday in the first week of December. And all the decorations HAVE to stick around until after my birthday around the second week of January. Hey, I was a very jealous child and it's just tradition now. ^_^ Shopping isn't too big. We can't afford it. If we do get each other something it's usually just something nice and cheap or something we need. I.E.: Last Christmas I got a new school bag because I had refused to give up my extremely war torn bag. They knew I would use it because they know I refuse not to use a gift I have been given. Then we just binge on all the holiday cookies and food we make throughout the month.

When I had money I would go nuts buying people presents. I have the fortune of being a great gift-giver. I have not given out a present where the reciever wasn't freaking out/really happey because of what I got them. I'm a freak because I expect nothing in return. Sometimes, even if I got a thank you card, I'd become extremely embarassed and shrug things off. :o

[Bubblegum Girl]

I kept thinking starting Nov 1 everyone would start buying X-Mas stuff but everyone at Target started buying halloween stuff.

[wrenchien]

no wonder i've been depressed lately.

thanks for warning me.

[Beat]

Christmas season to me always starts the day right after Thanksgiving. Hasn't changed for 19 years for me, and it won't change now.

[Elven Moon]

Christmas season to me always starts the day right after Thanksgiving. Hasn't changed for 19 years for me, and it won't change now.
Yeah, I fight getting into the Christmas mood until at least then myself ;)

[Nick K.]

The sooner Christmas comes, the better. :sweat:

[Kury Wagner]

everyone would start buying X-Mas stuff but everyone at Target started buying halloween stuff.
Heh, I read that wrong. I read it to say "buying X-Men stuff". . . I think everyone should buy X-Men stuff right now though. ;) . . . and send it to me as thanks for me being so sweet and kind! :nurse: [/ego]

[Sailor Chibi Otaku]

The way you can tell that Christmas is nearing:

America's Thanksgiving.

[Martianinvader]

I...really...hate....Christmas....okay, the gift part. I'll tell you why: on Christmas Day I hear how all my friends got 12 DVDs, 5 video games, assorted knick-knacks and a new car transmission. I usually get...a book. I know I'm lower-income and I'm not happy about it. This holiday just shoves it in my face and makes me want to cry.

[Martianinvader]

(read the last post of the previous page for Part I)

My favorite holiday is, in fact, Thanksgiving. Not many would agree with me, but Christmas is just ruined by the gift part and on Thanksgiving, the holiday season has just begun, you get a ton of TV specials, a ton of good food, a 4-day weekend, it just keeps on giving! Once Christmas ends, it's all over.

[Duke]

Wal-Mart back home had Christmas trees and giant Santa statues up during June...

I usually do X-Mas shopping in September/October when I can so I can avoid all the Holiday rushes at stores. Likewise, my mom usually gets me X-Mas gifts whenever I point it out to her.

Me: *Sees Zeta Boxset on pre-order* Can I get this?
Mom: OK. *Buys Zeta Boxset.*

My limit is usually around $150-$200, depending on what I get. This year, Zeta is my only X-Mas gift. :P

[Romanesque]

All that surplus Halloween candy hauled off the store shelves already... 'tis a shame. Never got any. :ack: All replaced by overpriced Christmas stuff everywhere you turn.

I be not pleased. :crying:

--Romey

[guinaevere]

I have always loved Christmas. It wasn't until I was I dunno, 22 or 23 or so that it became about anything other than presents to me.

And while I love seeing Christmas lights and decorations and happy Christmas shirts and stuff, I don't like seeing it so early. Yes, it's commercial. (Watch the Peanuts special, I think it makes the case about how it's so horribly changed from the original meaning to what it is in our society, that I don't need to go into that.)

But it isn't even the fact that it's so twisted commercially... it's that it's SO early, SO prevelant, that you're really numb to the day. Even if to you, it's only a day where you give and get presents. Because a day where you give and get presents should be pretty exciting, too.


I...really...hate....Christmas....okay, the gift part. I'll tell you why: on Christmas Day I hear how all my friends got 12 DVDs, 5 video games, assorted knick-knacks and a new car transmission. I usually get...a book. I know I'm lower-income and I'm not happy about it. This holiday just shoves it in my face and makes me want to cry.Sugar, I hear you. I grew up pretty poor in an upper middle class town. It can stink. I was fortunate that I had a family that loved each other so much that it made up for it. But it's still tough to deal with having so much less than EVERYone around you.

What bugs the heck out of me, are people who buy gobs of presents for their kids when their kids are total monsters. Hello! Isn't Santa supposed to keep an eye on whose good and whose bad? (this is another reason it's good gwen isn't a parent, because if I had a child who misbehaved, I'd make sure Santa brought them coal.)

bah. Now I'm in another of my cynical moods.

So while I'm this mood, I'll tell you what I think about Christmas lists. To me, a wishlist was a list of things you'd like to recieve. It's not a shopping list. It's not, I want this, this, this, x40, and you expect to get it all or even most of it. It gave ideas and suggestions.

Bah, I tell you! Kids these days. [/grumpy old gwen]

[Blue]

Grumpy Gwen is funny,lol. I really just want a few art supplies for christmas...just some really nice ink's,lol. I really couldn't care if I got anything, I love the acutal feeling of the season and the lights and all the music...unlike most kids my age I enjoy christmas for other reasons then preseants...which I really havn't recived any since I was 10 or so.

[purplehairedwonder]

I usually do X-Mas shopping in September/October when I can so I can avoid all the Holiday rushes at stores.I must be weird, but I like the Christmas crowds. I think shopping during the Christmas season with all the decorations out and stuff is fun.:)

[Zebi]

The Christmas decorations come out around mid-October every year, which I find really annoying. Can't the stores let Halloween pass before they bring out all the Christmas decorations? :sweat: If they don't want to do a Halloween theme, then just go with a autumn or harvest motif.

I have begun some of my Christmas shopping. I picked up a box of cards and a package of festive tissue paper, the kind that you use when you put presents into a decorative bag. I'll start to get presents for family members soon, if only to avoid the crowded malls!

[Mr. Pedro]

Santa's Workshop at the Volusia Mall is nearing completion and is set to open on the 13th of this month. I haven't seen much down in New Smyrna in the way of Christmas preparations though.

[Zach]

Christmas...I can't wait.

[Zach]

I know I'm lower-income and I'm not happy about it. This holiday just shoves it in my face and makes me want to cry.
Woah, i'm sorry to hear that. I've never thought about the people who don't get as much stuff as me on Christmas until just now. Things will get better sooner or later, don't worry.

[Boy Wonder]

Christmas to shopping mall eyes is green (aka dolla dolla bills), and Christmas starts earlier each year to make the green. The only exception is the Christmas Spectacular, thats it. No X-Mas commericials should start until Black Friday.

Look Dan, the Christmas commericial is out!

[Blue]

I had a friends father do all his shopping on elecction day....well that was smart 0__O
I might do mine sometime before thanksgiving...it'd be best to do that,lol.

[Edgirl17]

I *heart* Christmas. What I love about this holiday is listening to Xmas music, being with my family, no school , great food, and presents! YAY PRESENTS! :anime: I scratch my head when I see Xmas stuff in October. :sweat:

[Boy Wonder]

(We shouly only have Christmas every 4 years! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!)

As I said, X-Mas is dolla dolla bill season, but there is more to that. The family, the food, the presents:) , its all good and heart-warming on the inside, but its corporate greed on the outs of things.

[The Frog]

Hmmm... Christmas decorations already.


Anyone remember that holiday in November... You know, that one where we give thanks for all the blessings we have? Yea, what was that called... Something about giving... hey! Giving! Presents! Christmas is only in two months! Who cares about that other holiday!

[Kurtman]

I can't wait until Christmas! It does not really look very christmassy where I live because I live in San Diego where it does not snow. I used to live in Omaha,Nebraska where it really snowed,though!

[N310DA]

My family is a Christmas loving family (yes that includes me too) and even I have to say the decorations are going up way too early. It sort of takes away from how special the actual season is, so I too do not start putting up the lights and looking for a tree until after Thanksgiving at the earliest.

I know this is kind of off-topic but how many people here actually use REAL Christmas trees? In my family it's a sin to have a fake Christmas tree!:D

[Mr. Pedro]

I know this is kind of off-topic but how many people here actually use REAL Christmas trees? In my family it's a sin to have a fake Christmas tree!:DMy family has used a real tree only once, and I can't say that I blame them. The friggin' thing shed all the time and the cat seemed to get high whenever he got near it.

[purplehairedwonder]

I went to Old Navy to day (to pick up some winter clothes... funny enough) and they were playing Christmas carols over the speakers. It was crazy.

I know this is kind of off-topic but how many people here actually use REAL Christmas trees? In my family it's a sin to have a fake Christmas tree!:D I agree. My family has never had a fake tree since I can remember. There's just something about the real ones... I love the smell so much. I'm the "Unofficial Official Tree Waterer" in my house when we have our tree. So I get to crawl under the branches and water it every morning. But I kinda like the job. I'm also the one who always puts up the ornaments and lights on it as well. It's a holiday tradition.

[Duke]

In my family, plants always die in a week, so we use a fake tree. Also, it's easier to keep track of.

[The Falcon]

i don't get in the christmas mood until december 23rd. then i'm like "we're going to grandma's today? i better go pack a over-night bag" other than that, meh. although, it does really make me angry to walk into a wal-mart of october 30th only to be greeted by a giant plastic santa :mad:

GK

[Pyro]

Well, I don't like all that early Christmas marketing junk, but I do believe in keeping the Christmas spirit alive all year.

"Christmas only comes just once a year
and, now it's here
can't you feel it too?

Come and greet the world arms open wide
Christmas is alive
inside of you"

I only hope none of you can guess where those lyrics came from.:zim:

[MahouShoujo13]

It already looked a lot like Christmas when my teacher gave us the music we were going to sing for the Winter Concert in Concert Chorus. And TWO of them were Christmas-y.

Yeah...I went to a Marshalls before Thanksgiving...and it's warm out...and what do I see? Some of the stuff on sale were Christmas stuff.

OMG....what about Halloween and Thanksgiving, folks? In October, the only places I see with Halloween decorations are houses and a display window in a NYC shop while going to the Metropolitan.

[BLACKHEART]

I hate the holidays. My mom is like always dragging me along for some family get together. :( I always hate when people are like, "So when are you getting married?" "Have you found the right one?" It totally makes getting my holiday cash a miserable experience. :(

[The Falcon]

I hate the holidays. My mom is like always dragging me along for some family get together. :( I always hate when people are like, "So when are you getting married?" "Have you found the right one?" It totally makes getting my holiday cash a miserable experience. :(you tell them "yes, i have found the right guy" and then they'll shell out EVEN MORE money. bwhahahaahahaahahaha!!! trouble is, they'll find out you deceived them...hmm...decisions

GK

[BLACKHEART]

Are you sure? Like I noticed the older that I have gotten the less money the Grandparents shell out. :( It’s like they still pay on the 1990’s scale and hello it’s 2004! You might be right though, hmm! I could test the waters at Thanksgiving. :evil:

[The Guitar Slayer]

I'm a Christmas Crazie -- I go into cookie baking, tree decorating mode as of the first weekend in December. I'm in London up until the week before then, though. Since the Brits don't really celebrate Halloween or Turkey Day (obviously), Christmas shopping started in October, decorations and all! Threw me for a loop.

[Kury Wagner]

I noticed the older that I have gotten the less money the Grandparents shell out. :( I never really got money from my grandparents. On my birthday I'd get a card with a ten-dollar bill in it, but that's it. And now they're dead, so. . .

I'm sorta looking forward to Christmas because it's the one time that all of the family is together (or at least almost all) I love being able to see my sisters and brother-in-laws. It's just so cool and happy. I remember one Christmas (in 1998, I believe) mom didn't want to cook dinner (a first in my lifetime!) so we all went to this Greek family restaurant and I don't even remember what I ate, but I do remember that one of the waitresses looked exactly like the mom from Wonder Years!!! :eek: Really! It was uncanny! So yeah, I remember that Christmas a lot.

[BLACKHEART]

My Grandfather always gave me $50 at Thanksgiving and at least $100 at Christmas and now like my tastes are way more expensive I am lucky to get $20 at Thanksgiving and $50 at Christmas. O-I know like I sound so terrible but whatever. It's not like the only thing I care about is money.

[The Detective]

Marketers want everyone to get in the Christmas mood early so they can make more money. My Target has Christmas trees up before Halloween, that's just rediculess.

That said, my Mom and sister are both big Christmas crazies, so we'll start getting the tree and decorations and such up soon after Thanksgiving. Hopefully I can get any Christmas shopping I need done early this year. Wal Mart becomes an insane asylum at Christmas. :p

</The Detective>

[cross blues]

most people are happier at christmas. I can feel something in the air, and it makes me happier too. so I say the earlier, the better. but... it doesn't usually feel like christmas to me until the day after thanksgiving, or the day we get our trees and fill our house with the scent of pine.

[Boy Wonder]

i don't get in the christmas mood until december 23rd. then i'm like "we're going to grandma's today? i better go pack a over-night bag" other than that, meh. although, it does really make me angry to walk into a wal-mart of october 30th only to be greeted by a giant plastic santa :mad:

GK
Can't forget about the wolf and the bear!;)

I ticked about that too, and I get into Christmas spirit here and there like when Good Eats: Romancing the Bird comes on or when Rudolph comes on for its annual showing. I do hate the "get a pan so you can make Christmas cookies on" promos from Target. They are total dongs when it comes to X-Mas

[The Detective]

i don't get in the christmas mood until december 23rd. then i'm like "we're going to grandma's today? i better go pack a over-night bag" other than that, meh. although, it does really make me angry to walk into a wal-mart of october 30th only to be greeted by a giant plastic santa :mad:

GKA giant plastic Santa? Bah, my Wal Mart goes all out and sets up two singing Santas that belt out "We Wish You a Merry Christmas."

</The Detective>

[Jave]

This isn't limited to the United States, I went to the supermarket with my mom today and they were setting up a Christmas tree. "And it's still over a month away" I said. :p