So, I’m driving home from my interview (got the job!), and I decide to stop by the grocery store to pick up some beer and chili fixin’s in order to celebrate the job and hopefully watch Free Shoes U get pounded tonight. As I’m walking out of the store something catches the corner of my eye. Boxes. Brightly colored boxes being set up by the employees making some new display. Red and green boxes with little pictures of Santa and snowmen on them.
What the fuck people! It’s October 11! Fer Chrissakes, fucking Halloween is still over two weeks away. I can only hope and pray that it’s a dry run or something, but goddamn, put some skeletons and witches and candy out. Not Santa! Not yet.
I went into my local Sam’s club the week before Halloween last year to bulk up on candy. Nope, they had phased out that stuff already, in favor of three aisles of Xmas stuff. That’s right. Before Halloween, they had gotten rid of all their Halloween candy.
Gimme my holiday that not only admits to, but celebrates its pagan heritage.
I work part time at a gourmet kitchen store, and we started receiving Xmas stuff in August, and even got a box of Easter in before the end of September. Something about price breaks for early orders.
I love Christmas. I put up my tree really early. Love decorating.
You all think I’m going to defend the stores, don’t you? Because I’m not. When I say “early”, I mean I put up my tree the weekend after Thanksgiving. That’s right, after all my holidays of Halloween/Diwali/Thanksgiving are all over with. My birthday usually falls around that weekend so I take it as a birthday present.
I’m not surprised. Got back from Amsterdam in late August. Went to the comissary to get some grub, much like the OP, to celebrate having a nice vacation on my last few days of leave. They had HALLOWEEN DECORATIONS and CANDY OUT!
I even said to of the cashiers putting up the display “Its August 27th! WTH?”. She just laughed and said that by October they’d be putting up Xmas stuff.
Its not even Thanksgiving yet folks, but I’m not shocked to see Santa.
I know, it’s a PITA and it’s kind of depressing. I take them New Year’s Day, usually, and I just think of the two more months of winter remaining with no pretty lights to light your way home.
I used to work at Price Club (now part of Costco) waaay back in the 80s and early 90s, and the Christmas stuff was received and stocked in the aisles, ready to move on Tuesday…
In the mid-70’s my cynical friends and I would have a contest to see who could spot the first xmas commercial. The winner was always sometime in mid to late August.
I have a old book of Charlie Brown comics from the 1950’s. In like 1957 Charles Shulz wrote a strip about not being able to buy a Halloween costume because the store was full of xmas decorations.
I cannot fathom why people are surprised by this phenomena year after year after year.
