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I am officially grossed out. We stopped into a Food Lion grocery store
in north Raleigh Sunday afternoon to find it decorated with Christmas
swags, Santa Clauses, Merry Christmas signs and all the Christmas candy
displayed. any ideas ? |
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-The stores in the malls are decorated already too. Even heard
Christmas music in Penneys -They obviously weren't going all out yet, but I saw Christmas items (candles, table runners, that sort of thing) in our local Fred Meyers
in AUGUST -You ought to hear my DH on the topic!
I think the thing that grosses him (and me) out more than the
stores putting up Christmas decorations up early is the
stores _taking them down_ before Christmas is even here!
When we were driving over the weekend, I found myself muttering
about one particular house which had lights up already.
It wasn't until we got closer that we realized all the
lights were orange and white. Instead of being Christmas
lights up early, they were Halloween lights up late!
That wasn't *quite* so bad.
DH says that "Dan's Discount Demographics" indicate that
"everyone has to get the Christmas stuff up early, or
lose market share". The only problem with the merchandisers
pushing seasons earlier and earlier is that then it becomes
impossible to get seasonal merchandise in season. I mean,
what do you do when a kid outgrows a winter coat in, say,
February, and the stores have the bathing suits out already? -I heard this a lot at CVS... :)
Retails always push some sort of season (esp a CVS which doesn't carry
clothes, but day to day health and beauty stuff), so once Halloween is
over, it's on to Christmas. There just isn't (thank goodness!!!) much for
many places to sell to help you "celebrate" Thanksgiving. (ok, grocery
stores, but...).
We were ALWAYS supposed to have Christmas set up November 1, from
beginning to end. -Garden Ridge (warehouse-style home decor/craft store) had their
Christmas trees, candles, baskets, etc all out in September. I was in
Victoria's Secret on Friday night (they sent me a coupon for a free
pair of panties, so what the heck!), and suddenly realized that the
elevator music in the background was Silent Night. Ack! They're just
trying to stress me out since I haven't even thought about what to get
people for Christmas, let alone do any actual shopping for it yet. -ast night we were listening to the radio, and
there was an ad for a concert that will feature new Christmas music (off
this person's new album) on...November 12. Yuck. Rich said that at
least this had a point, she was trying to sell the album for Christmas
gifts and stuff, but still.
Since we observe Advent, and the full 12 days of the Christmas
season, the only gifty thing we do during that time is for St. Nicholas
on the 6th of December. We do stockings then, and the St. Nick gifts of
chocolate coins and maybe a special extra thing for each other and the
boys. Our church does the hanging of the greens, I think a week or two
before Christmas, and the Lessons and Carols service that same weekend.
Those are the only hints at Christmas before Christmas. We don't put up
the tree or lights or decorations until Christmas Eve, well, sometimes
we'll get the tree earlier, but we don't decorate it until then, we
don't play carols until then. |
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