Retailers and Christmas - a bit early this year
- By Emily Kieson
- Published Sunday 18th 2007
Emily Kieson
Emily currently lives in Austin TX and spends most of her time writing and enjoying the weather. She loves to write stories and screenplays for all ages. When she's not writing, Emily is teaching horseback riding, working as a vet tech, or painting.
According to national economic reports, retailers skipped a few weeks and started selling Christmas long before the usual dates following Halloween due to fears of consumer spending restraints. For those of you lucky enough to have visited a Lowes or Home Depot sometime in the month of October, you managed to catch just a glimpse of the holiday mania that will inevitably engulf the retail world this season.
I'm talking about the enormous air-filled holiday decorations that are meant to blink, wave, spin, and even sing while filling the otherwise empty space in your front lawn.
Either I'm shrinking or these decorations are getting bigger every year. Even the decorative gifts at the department stores are growing in size and half the time I expect store employees to jump out and yell season's greetings at me.
I love color and song and holiday spirit and find these gigantic displays incredibly amusing. In fact, they dwarf me to the point where I begin to feel like a holiday elf - how appropriate! But I was a little disappointed to find these decorations haunting my space long before Halloween arrived. Feeling like an elf is fine, but I'm beginning to feel a bit forced into my holiday spirit.
Like many others, I feel the impacts of the recent economic downfalls and begin to look a prices a bit differently as gas prices rise and major financial institutions fall apart under our watchful eye. With that in mind, I look forward to the sweet smell of baking cookies and hot chocolate that come with the cooler weather surrounding Christmas. Year after year I look forward to the warmth of the holiday
spirit and the songs and tastes that define the holiday.
But somehow the retailers have dwarfed not only my physical senses but also my warm Christmas spirit. By touting their goods early (and in force!) they have simply emphasized what Christmas means to them: a means by which to regain lost profits. I can handle large showy objects and waving, singing Santas with blinking lights, but only when appropriate.
Hoping to maximize consumer spending, they brought out the trees and lights early, long before I had a chance to enjoy giggling children on Halloween and plan for my Thanksgiving rituals. It's as if the stores forgot about the other months and skipped right to December, but not for the joy and happiness, but for the money. They forced consumers into Christmas without even blinking.
I remember a time with smaller decorations, white lights, and soft music soothing the shopper's soul and pulling them like a mythical siren into the store to subtly urge them into a purchase. These small gestures reinforced the consumer's feeling of giving and family, making them feel like the spontaneous purchase of a cookie jar for uncle Bob originated within them.
Now, however, retailers shout and scream for attention like spoiled children who will not cease their tantrum until you purchase their goods. They compete with one another for your money and make you feel guilty if you have spent any less than your life savings on every single person you have ever met.
And this year they did it early.
I'll be spending my holidays with soft music, hot chocolate, white lights, and the company of my dearest companions. If I purchase a tree, the base will remain void of presents. I'm on strike.
I'm talking about the enormous air-filled holiday decorations that are meant to blink, wave, spin, and even sing while filling the otherwise empty space in your front lawn.
Either I'm shrinking or these decorations are getting bigger every year. Even the decorative gifts at the department stores are growing in size and half the time I expect store employees to jump out and yell season's greetings at me.
I love color and song and holiday spirit and find these gigantic displays incredibly amusing. In fact, they dwarf me to the point where I begin to feel like a holiday elf - how appropriate! But I was a little disappointed to find these decorations haunting my space long before Halloween arrived. Feeling like an elf is fine, but I'm beginning to feel a bit forced into my holiday spirit.
Like many others, I feel the impacts of the recent economic downfalls and begin to look a prices a bit differently as gas prices rise and major financial institutions fall apart under our watchful eye. With that in mind, I look forward to the sweet smell of baking cookies and hot chocolate that come with the cooler weather surrounding Christmas. Year after year I look forward to the warmth of the holiday
But somehow the retailers have dwarfed not only my physical senses but also my warm Christmas spirit. By touting their goods early (and in force!) they have simply emphasized what Christmas means to them: a means by which to regain lost profits. I can handle large showy objects and waving, singing Santas with blinking lights, but only when appropriate.
Hoping to maximize consumer spending, they brought out the trees and lights early, long before I had a chance to enjoy giggling children on Halloween and plan for my Thanksgiving rituals. It's as if the stores forgot about the other months and skipped right to December, but not for the joy and happiness, but for the money. They forced consumers into Christmas without even blinking.
I remember a time with smaller decorations, white lights, and soft music soothing the shopper's soul and pulling them like a mythical siren into the store to subtly urge them into a purchase. These small gestures reinforced the consumer's feeling of giving and family, making them feel like the spontaneous purchase of a cookie jar for uncle Bob originated within them.
Now, however, retailers shout and scream for attention like spoiled children who will not cease their tantrum until you purchase their goods. They compete with one another for your money and make you feel guilty if you have spent any less than your life savings on every single person you have ever met.
And this year they did it early.
I'll be spending my holidays with soft music, hot chocolate, white lights, and the company of my dearest companions. If I purchase a tree, the base will remain void of presents. I'm on strike.
