October, as expected, brought a plethora of Halloween decorations to the shelves of stores and the front porches of homes. I was also able to buy a 250 piece Hershey’s chocolate bag and not feel guilty because it’s, um, for the trick-or-treaters. For October, all of this is completely appropriate. What’s not? Eggnog, Christmas cookies, ornaments and other Christmas paraphernalia already on sale in the middle of October! With Christmas still two months away, Halloween just barely over and Thanksgiving still a thing of the future, why do I already feel the need to start getting the Christmas tree together?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m a holiday junkie I will go to the pumpkin patch 17 times and drink enough eggnog to hydrate a small country –but I think America is getting a little out of hand when taking advantage of the fact that holidays that used to be about having fun and spending time with family, are now about consumerism.
The first week of October, I was stoked to see that eggnog was already on sale. Then I thought, “Wait, what the hell? It’s definitely only October.” I’m absolutely positive that last year it wasn’t available for purchase until at least November. Then a few weeks later, I was getting ready to bake Halloween sugar cookies with my sister, and saw that there are already holiday-fused chocolate chips and Santa sugar cookies on sale. How does that even make sense?
As if Safeway, Costco, and other big grocery chains gearing up for holiday way too soon wasn’t enough, Macy’s aired its first holiday commercial in the middle of October as well. Why?! Call me crazy, but I don’t think there is any need for commercials to remind people to get their Christmas shopping done. Especially in October.
Society definitely needs to calm down. Christmas and Halloween are two of the biggest consumer holidays, despite their real messages. Spending time with family is a thing of the past; now it’s about who buys who the best gift and who got the best deal. By doing this, consumers acquire and spend even more than they did the year before and build up as much stress as possible.
Honestly, the whole holiday craze already is absolutely ridiculous.
Even though it won’t happen, people really need to calm down and take the year month by month. By letting all of the influence from commercials and stores affect us, we’re building up too much anticipation and stress because we think we don’t have enough time to get everything done. Breathe, people! It’s just barely past Halloween and we have yet to enjoy Thanksgiving.
You still have plenty of time to partake in the consumerism madness that is Christmas.