When was the last time you went into a store and saw the correct holiday on display? Stores all over the world constantly have displays up before the true season begins, whether it’s for back-to-school season, Christmas, Halloween, Valentine’s Day, and many more. Why do stores do this? All year-round stores disregard appropriate timing and true seasonal holidays. Do people enjoy this?
By far, the most exciting holiday for many Americans is Christmas. Most national retail stores such as Walmart, Target, and Macy’s start decorating for Christmas from middle to late October. Stores advertising for Christmas early has officially become normal to people who celebrate this holiday. When Mr. Clothier, an Upper School faculty member was asked, “What holiday bothers you the most when decorations are being displayed early?” he said without hesitation, “Christmas. Christmas overreaches Thanksgiving when decorations are put out too early.” When decorations are displayed too early, the stores water down both the Christmas and Thanksgiving experience.
People who celebrate Christmas love this holiday season because it brings feelings of joy, love, and happiness. An article from Newsweek states, “For many local businesses in downtown areas, being prepared for Christmas well in advance helps beat the competition offered in e-commerce.” As soon as the Christmas displays hit the sore floor, people buy. Why? Because they want to feel the Christmas spirit. This leads us to the question: Are we doing this to ourselves? In an article from Forbes Advisor, Marsha Cohen says, “The holiday has become clearly the most important period for a retailer. Why not extend it and make it have a longer life?” Even before temperatures drop, once stores start advertising for holidays, people get excited that the Christmas season is finally here.
Stores putting up holiday decorations is an extremely lucrative business. Even though a large percentage of people would much rather wait to buy holiday decorations, let alone think about the next holiday coming up, there are people who love early holiday shopping. The release of Christmas music is the perfect example. As of November 3rd, people were able to begin buying the Philadelphia Eagles Christmas album. Another example is The Hallmark channel. They released their holiday lineup in September, and NBC News says, “This year, fans were able to start watching their tried-and-true favorites as early as October.”
Not only does putting out holiday decorations early annoy people, but it also affects our world drastically. GWP group, a manufacturing company based in the UK, researched how much waste was produced at Christmas time alone. They found that approximately three tons of additional waste comes from Christmas. Where does this waste go? You guessed it…into our environment. Because people all around the world shop so early for Christmas, stores feel the need to start producing more. As stores produce more products, more emissions are released into the atmosphere which harms the ozone layer and leads to more global warming.
In an article with House Beautiful, a decorating magazine, a survey was taken, examining the decorating patterns of 2,748 adults in the U.S. The survey showed that “among those surveyed, 27% put their winter holiday decorations up before Thanksgiving, while 69% wait until after Thanksgiving to start putting up decorations.”
Every year, as the holiday season begins to approach, people all over are left to think about their holiday shopping habits, and how people are perpetuating the ugly cycle of stores selling holiday merchandise before the holiday season truly begins. Next time you go Christmas shopping before the holiday truly begins, think to yourself. Am I the reason stores are displaying holiday items so early?
