How early is too early for Christmas?

How early is too early for Christmasey stuff, like Christmas music, Christmas TV specials, etc.

I'd say no earlier than a week or so before Thanksgiving at the very earliest, really more like around Thanksgiving.

Reamsie wrote:I don't think we need to roll out Christmas anything until at least the day after Thanksgiving. Every year people (retailers) especially seem to start the hype earlier and earlier. In my town the local stores were starting to decorate before Halloween was even here and the music started the first of November.

My sentiments EXACTLY.

It is all very annoying and obviously commercial.
I understand merchants want to recoup losses, but it is just ridiculous and turns more people off than motivates them.

Oh, lordy, I can't believe I'm going to say this but here goes anyway -- back when I was young, Christmas stuff started right about Thanksgiving, and in earnest just following it. Over the years, it has gotten started earlier and earlier. By the time it actually arrives, one is totally disgusted with all things holiday, especially the music. I guess the marketing folks have never heard of over saturation.

SimplyNan wrote:Oh, lordy, I can't believe I'm going to say this but here goes anyway -- back when I was young, Christmas stuff started right about Thanksgiving, and in earnest just following it. Over the years, it has gotten started earlier and earlier. By the time it actually arrives, one is totally disgusted with all things holiday, especially the music. I guess the marketing folks have never heard of over saturation.

What she said.

I actually don't mind it starting a bit before Thanksgiving, maybe a week. But before Halloween? Umm, no.

PS - Nan, what did you mean by "I can't believe I'm going to say this"? you mean the part about "back when I was young"? 'cause this was true when I was young too, and I'm just a little whippersnapper.

Beade, it was the phrase, back when I was young. I remember older people saying this when I was a kid and now here I am, doing the same. Guess some things just never change.

Reading your response, INFP, makes me think that if we are not happy with what is currently occuring, we can change it. There is nothing that says that traditions must always be the same. For me, I stress the no gifts because, well, I very much enjoy the camaraderie, the ambience of just being with people I like. Because things have gotten so busy and rushed, people can't seem to just get together and enjoy themselves like they did. Now, that said, there are some cultures who still retain this and what brings this to mind is the Hispanic folks. They will get together and have fun for just about any reason under the sun! There is no reason why we can't do likewise. It's the connections, the sharing, just being with others who we like, that's what's important. All the commercial blather is nonsense, it's the marketing folks telling us what we should do in order to enjoy ourselves. Me, I don't much like anyone telling me what to do. Never have, never will.

I would say that anything before Dec. 1st is too early. That's just me. I can't really get into the spirit until after December. Yes, here the DAY after Halloween the commercials started on TV and the malls had their decorations out and Christmas carols playing..... The over commercialization kind of bugs me.
When I was little we did not put out our tree and decorations until about two weeks before Christmas. My parents were against celebrating Christmas too early hehe. So most of my friends had their tree and I was always just about busting at the seams by the time we put ours up. I was always responsible for decorating the tree and sipping eggnog...
I do love the holidays but I also feel a lot of the magic has gone away in some ways, I hate to say it... I just can't stand how commercial it is and the ads just drive me batty... I have not set foot in a mall in several years at Christmas except for one brief mistake last year which was just awful...
It's funny how this eagerness for the secular commercial holiday is so rampant but yet one can't even say Merry Christmas anymore...

I have my own personal way of bringing in the holiday season.

Every Christmas I trot out the stained glass supplies. For one month a year, from the end of November until the end of December, the only art I work on is glass. I put away the paints and the jewelry supplies and focus only on making stained glass ornaments. I've done it for years now, and while it started out as just an urge, it's now become a tradition. Regardless of what the mall refers to as the holiday season, that 30-or-so-day period is MY holiday season. That's when I listen to the music and drink the cocoa and bless the snow. I do not break out the glass box until a couple of days after Thanksgiving, and away it goes the day after Christmas. That's how I, personally, know it's Christmas.

So I can ignore the bleating of the advertisers telling me to hurry up and spend my money, can turn away from the incessantly blinking lights on the phony plastic trees that appear in friggin' SEPTEMBER, for crissakes, because I KNOW when the holidays start. They start when I fire up that soldering iron.

I agree with all of it. I saw the first xmas decoration stand in a store in August!!!

I just try to not shop as much as possible to avoid the crowds and I'm finding myself watching very little tv. I don't miss the commercials. Listening to xmas carols on Holloween was much too much; many stores were playing them that week.

I was browsing through the weekly events listed on the Peace Center calendar of events and came across the following which just fits into this topic so well that I had to share.


Tucson Christmas Conspiracy
Sunday, November 23rd 4:00 pm - 6:30 pm
On Nov. 23 is a free showing of the 2007 documentary, "What Would Jesus Buy?" A vegetarian meal made with local food will be offered after the movie for a suggested donation of $5.
The film begins a series of events to celebrate Christmas with more compassion and less consumption. The Tucson Christmas Conspiracy will also include gift making workshops/parties, a Barter Bazaar on Dec. 14, and a candle light service on the Longest Night of the Year, Dec. 21. All events will happen at the parish hall of St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in Armory Park, 545 S. 5th Ave. on Sundays at 4 pm until Christmas.

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Community wide Conspiracy events will be offered at 4 pm on Sunday’s from November 23 until December 21. On November 30 and December 7, the group, Join the Living (www.jointheliving.com) will host gift-making parties at St. Andrew’s. Participants are invited to bring their own projects, craft making supplies to share with others, or to just come and get ideas. On December 14, Join the Living will host a community wide Barter Bazaar at St. Andrew’s. Participants are invited to bring things to trade with others. Suggested items are baked goods, hand-made crafts, art, or high quality second-hand items suitable for giving as Christmas presents. No money will be exchanged. The church kitchen will also be open on December 14 for participants to use to make baked goods. A vegetarian meal made with local food will be available at all events at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church at 5:30 pm for a suggested donation of $5.

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The 2007 documentary, “What Would Jesus Buy?”, follows performance artist, Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping Gospel Choir on a cross-country mission to save Christmas from the Shopocalypse.


So now here is a new concept to toss around -- saving Christmas from the Shopocalypse. I love it!!

"WWJB" - lol

It's funny 'cause it's true.

'Shopocalypse'! Yep..that's about right!
I saw the Rev. Jesse Jackson on the news yesterday asking everyone with ears to not buy anything this year. Boycott buying! That struck me as funny also! Wonder how many will listen. Course...they always state that we did not spend enough anyways...seems no-one is satisfied about that anymore.
Funny...I never remembered that being such a big issue as a kid.
I guess I do as I see fit to for Christmas. I actually dug out the lights from the crawl today cause I wanted them easier to access when I felt the need to string em up.
Not even ready for the muzak yet though. I usually get in a bit of mood about two weeks before or so. That's about good enough. It's all over so quickly anyway...
dan

The whole outrage about Christmas commercialization has been around for a while. I mean, look at A Charlie Brown Christmas. The whole gist of that is that Christmas is too commercial and that program came out some time in the sixties.

The Grinch too. At the end the moral is: "Christmas came without [all the toys and whistles and bells]" Don't they say "Christmas doesn't come from a store.... Christmas means a little bit more."
(Thank you Dr. Zeus.)

Give the retailers, etc., about five to ten more years. By then, they should be starting the Christmas shopping season, etc., on January 2nd!

waterdragon7 wrote:Give the retailers, etc., about five to ten more years. By then, they should be starting the Christmas shopping season, etc., on January 2nd!

By then, I think that people will be buying and selling the rights to Christmas.

nuckinfutz wrote:

waterdragon7 wrote:Give the retailers, etc., about five to ten more years. By then, they should be starting the Christmas shopping season, etc., on January 2nd!

By then, I think that people will be buying and selling the rights to Christmas.

I thought they were doing that already.

Hmm sorry, i just found something maybe fitting in here.
(Actually, i was searching a glittering picture of David Beckham in underware for Wissywig...Calvin Klein. Don´t ask)

Anyway. I thought this might could fit in here:

Melle wrote:Hmm sorry, i just found something maybe fitting in here.
(Actually, i was searching a glittering picture of David Beckham in underware for Wissywig...Calvin Klein. Don´t ask)

Anyway. I thought this might could fit in here:

"Shop to you drop"......or not!