Why?? They have had the ornament “premieres” in July or August for at least the past 10 years(and probably for much longer than that, but I didn’t buy them before then so my memory of before that is fuzzy), so it’s not like they’ve changed things recently.
In Norway, the shopping centers and the retailers’ associations in downtown areas usually sponsor a “Christmas tree lighting” on the first Sunday of Advent - which is today. That doesn’t mean the shops don’t start putting up decorations a week or two ahead of the tree lighting, or that they aren’t advertising Christmas Presents and Christmas This and Christmas That and Christmas Somethingelse by November 1st, but the closest thing there is to an “official” start of the Xmas Shopping Season when they pull out all the stops, go for the full court press, and any other tortured metaphor they can think of, is when someone flips a switch and - now isn’t this fascinating - the little electric lights go on!
The store where I’m working this Yuletide is in a major mall. There’s a usually peaceful little cafe across from our shop, but the peace is broken once a year by a massive Christmas display centering around a three-meter-high mechanical elf who periodically starts singing a medley of (mostly badly translated, modern American) Christmas carols to terrify the children. This annual tradition was set in motion around Wednesday of this past week. By some fortunate quirk of fate, “my” department is all the way in the back of the store and I can’t hear a bit of it. The cashiers may be the only workers in the store who get to sit down, but they’re stuck hearing “Rudolf er rød på nesen” every fifteen minutes 
No, our “Aussie Christmas” stuff is even more disgusting. If there’s one thing worse than fake snow on a 40 degree December day, it’s Santa in thongs*. Or Rolf Harris singing Six White Boomers.
Hijacky type question: In an episode of The Simpsons, Homer says to Apu, “You must love this country as much as I love a cold beer on a hot Christmas day.” Now this makes complete sense to me, because I love a cold beer on a hot Christmas day. But Homer experiences Christmas in the winter. Is there some reference I’m missing, or is Homer just being an idiot?
*Note to North Americans: doesn’t mean what you think it does. Except that would be bad.
Because I was always taught (when at school in Texas) that Thanksgiving was celebrating a specific event: the one with Pilgrims and Indians. If it is a more general thing, I stand corrected, but I reckon the vast majority of people - including Americans - still associate the festival with that event.
Um in the UK we just call it Xmas!!!
My aunt used to buy everyone’s presents in the January sales and have all her Christmas gifts wrapped up by March at the latest, a good nine months in advance of the actual date.
Which explained why things were often faded and a little stale when you unwrapped them on the big day.
Having had Australian christmases and English christmases, I can honestly say (though I love Australia and much prefer its climate) that christmas is a thousand times better in the UK. All the festivities are geared to cold and darkness (log fires, mulled wine, twinkling lights, candles) and in Australia - sorry Aussies! - it was lame by comparison.
Christmases here in Dubai are total crapola though, understandably. It’s not even a public holiday.