Went to Lowes the other day. I could easialy drop 5k on all the Christmas display stuff.
We now live in an area that might get some trick-or-treaters. Gonna need to buy candy. That’s ok, might be kinda fun. It’s been about 4 decades since the little devils have been around.
Make sure you get something you enjoy yourself. I think you’ll be surprised to find out Trick-or-Treating is pretty much dead.
Yeah, some folks do pre-arranged events for the kids. We would only buy candy that we like. There is some serious decor on our street, so I suspect kids are welcome.
Google “trunk or treat” for the latest abomination in safe helicopter parenting.
Having done it, the littles still have much fun. Anyone over about 8 or maybe 10 is crying about the lame-itude.
That must depend on where you are. We get plenty of trick-or-treaters every year.
Switching back to Christmas …
In another harbinger of the Season, I have received my first catalog advertising fruitcakes. Yaay fruitcakes! [cue thread digression better suited for starting a related thread]
I like fruitcakes and have bought from these folks many times before. Although I now have no business eating such concentrated blood sugar and waistline boosters. If you enjoy fruitcakes, I can recommend these folks:
But you will get a lot of email and snailmail from them from now until about February when they finally sell out for the season. Not quite as bad as the multiple daily “Buy our stuff” reminders from Viking Cruise Lines, but close.
This has ruined all of my favorite Christmas songs. I can’t wait to see what fresh hell is waiting for us this year. “Yabba-dabba-fruity-licious-doo” still takes the prize for the worst abuse of a traditional Christmas carol.
Usually Special K is the first in/last out for Christmas commercials. Last year, Glade was very early with Christmas ads. It probably says something about the economy, but I’m too worn out to try to analyze it.
I’ve posted here before about Collin Street Bakery fruitcakes. They really are that good. A local bakery makes a nice panforte, so I’m happy if I can get one of those every year. Or maybe two. 
We seem to have a “Fruitcake: Yea or Naay?” thread most years, and the “Yea” voices are in the minority but share some great recommendations.
That’s because most people have only had shitty fruitcake. I’ve only had good fruitcake once. It still wouldn’t be something I would choose but at least I understand why people would like it.
And today I got my first email pushing Christmas stuff. From these folks: Monastery Fruitcake.
We have stores called Garden Centers in the UK - big out of town stores selling everything for the garden (duh…). I assume that similar things exist in most countries. I went to my local one today, to buy a pack of soil pH testing kits and …Gone!
Forget commercials - here we are in Mid October and every last little bit (almost) of gardening gear has been shipped out and the store has been completely filled with Xmas stuff. I mean, I guess the logic is that there’s not much of a market for gardening stuff now, but jeez, was that depressing.
j
I’ve been slamming the ‘delete’ button on emails from my beading supplier since late summer, at least. I understand that the bulk of their business comes from folks who have to get their jewelery items designed early in time for the holiday season, but I have zero interest in angels and trees and candy canes when it’s over 100º outside.
And Hobby Lobby can fuck right off. Early ads are bad enough, but they’ve got the same ad running over and over and over.
I watch very little commercial TV. Tonight I turned on baseball. I saw a Halloween-themed ad for ordinary sneakers immediately followed by an ad for Christmas decorating paraphernalia.
It was jarring.
Well (AIUI), you guys call your front (and back) yards “gardens,” so it’s not that surprising that your stores’ “Garden” departments don’t have gardening supplies during non-plant-friendly months…
Seems like people cut off huge chunks, like it’s regular cake, and then get tired of it. CMIIW, but it’s more of a concentrated delicacy.
I don’t see TV commercials, yet was in ASDA today and the boxes of pumpkins both large (small) and medium (smaller) were gone and fake christmas trees and lights and baubles (decorations) are all over.
The UK doesn’t have a Black Friday - it’s just a black month. Yet in the USA this is the maximum shopping days from Black Friday to Christmas
I was in Costco last week and was surprised to see almost no Christmas stuff and hardly any Halloween stuff other than bags of candy.
I was in Walmart on Tues evening; Halloween stuff was already on clearance & being consolidated to just part of one aisle to bring out Xmas stuff.
I also was in Michaels; surprisingly, even the Thanksgiving stuff was on 40-50% off already. How many people shop for Thanksgiving before Halloween? Between the cost (would be tough to shop for next month’s holiday if you’re living paycheck-to-paycheck) & the storage space of where do you keep it in a small apartment a lot of people simply can’t.
You know, I (rhetorically) asked one of the workers in Walmart (it was early November) why they (the generalized “they”, not the workers themselves) couldn’t let us at least have Thanksgiving before starting on Christmas stuff. He told me that, except for food, Thanksgiving doesn’t have much stuff to sell. Which I can understand from a retail standpoint, but still…
Look, I love Christmas decorations and music. I just don’t want to be burned out on them before December even starts. But I’m weakening…I listened to some of The Nutcracker within the last few days.
Imagine the horror for those of us who don’t.