Why Does The Christmas Season Start So Early Every Year?

It’s mid-October, and Christmas products and decorations are starting to be out and about in stores already. It seems that every year Christmas starts a little earlier.

I understand that most consumers aren’t too happy about this. Let me tell you a little secret: neither are the workers. Once again, it’s not up to the workers to decide when Christmas starts.

We’re still a few weeks from Halloween and America still has Thanksgiving to look forward to. Then why on earth do we have Christmas stuff for sale already?

It’s pretty simple really. Money. It always boils down to money. For most stores, Christmas is the best season for sales. Many stores sell more stuff between November and December than they do in the other ten months. Management gets greedy. Then again, it’s a bit of a catch-22.

Every year you have some customers complaining that Christmas start too late, as they’d want to start preparing for it earlier. On the other hand, many customers purposely wait as close to Christmas as they can to start their shopping. Why? Because of Christmas sales. The best sales are always, every year, right before Christmas. Can’t please everyone.

I work in a small retail store which does most of it’s business in the Christmas season, as most of the goods are focused on decorations, arts and crafts, and gift wrapping materials. The Christmas season just started last week (October 10th), with Christmas cards and wrapping paper coming on sale. It’s only October and we’re already suffocating in Christmas crap (yeah, most of it is crap which I can’t understand how anyone would want to buy…).

I know Christmas only comes once a year, but get used to the fact that it starts ridiculously early every year. There’s no use in complaining about it every year to the clerks, to the newspapers, to Consumerist.com, or to just about anyone who’ll listen to you. If you really want to effectively complain about, just don’t buy any Christmas stuff until you really need to. No one is forcing you to buy Christmas tree ornaments in October, even if they are on sale.

Today’s final thought is in the form of Christmas carols. Don’t you just LOVE listening to “Rudolf The Red-Nosed Reindeer” in October or early November…? Neither do the clerks. So please, don’t complain about it. You might have to listen to it for an hour or so a few times a week, whereas the clerks have to listen to the same tunes for as much as 40+ hours a week for several months. So much for Christmas spirit…

If you have a story relating to this post, from either side of the counter, let’s hear it!

The customer is NOT always right. If you agree with this, or wish to know what to do and not do as a consumer, please subscribe to this blog’s updates by the way of the RSS feed or email subscriptions. Thank you for shopping at the Consumer Etiquette Guide, now go and make someone have a nice day at work!