"It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas..."

Disclaimer: I love Christmas. I really do. It’s my favorite holiday. With that in mind, please read on:

Monday October 9, 2006. 12:30pm. Greenfield, Wisconsin. I saw it. The FIRST CHRISTMAS TREE OF THE SEASON!!!! Here is my tale:

I was walking into Sears in Southridge mall with my fiancé, when we stopped dead in our tracks. Barely inside the door was a cluster of displayed Christmas trees and stockings. Looking at him wide-eyed I asked, “Is that a Christmas tree?” I didn’t need to ask because yes, indeed that was a Christmas tree, and a few feet away from it was a huge inflatable snow globe for your lawn! I’m not kidding, this thing was monstrous. Inside the blow-up globe spun a carousel of reindeer, surrounded by thousands of flying “snowflakes.” I remember wondering why anyone would put such a huge thing on their lawn (I believe I asked out loud how much this globe must cost), however, more importantly I wondered if I somehow fell into a time warp, and it was now December.

But I was obviously wrong. It’s still October. On one hand, I was kind of excited, because Christmas is my favorite holiday. On the other…..come on!!! It’s freakin’ October!!!!! And who knows? It’s been awhile since I was at the mall; these displays have probably been there for weeks now! When all the displays are up this early, it’s not about being festive and pretty for the holidays, it’s just about a marketing ploy. (Now I know some may argue that it ALL just a marketing ploy WHENEVER it’s put up, but I digress.) So yeah, the trees are up now, sucking all the fun out of everything. It’s as if all the stockings and tinsel are saying, “Quick! Hurry up and start thinking about the crap you want to buy! Time’s running out! Hey—maybe you’ll find something here at Sears as long as you’re being reminded of it in our store!”

Yep gotta love it. Advertising with reindeer, snow globes, stockings, and trees. In October. Way to go commercial America and stress people out earlier than you have to. (I did mention that Christmas is still my favorite holiday right?)