I
find myself vaguely disturbed by what I have noticed to be a new trend
these last few years – open seasons (AKA retailers moving holidays
further and further up the retail calendar and mushing them all together).
For example, in September of last year, I walked into several retailers
only to be bombarded with Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas all
at the same time. Instead of “Aw cool! Now I can find the perfect
HallowThanksMas costume/centerpiece/gift item.” I was left thinking
“What the f*ck?!” It used to be a treat to wait until the month of
the holiday, walk into the store and enjoy each holiday's individual
kitsch. Now, it's like walking through a hoarder's garage - creepy,
off putting and probably slightly hazardous to one's health.
And it's
not just the October/November/December holidays falling victim to
this most accursed of fates. In January of this year, I was seeing
Valentine’s Day products (which is perfectly reasonable) flocked on
the next isle by *Easter* products. Easter? Easter was what in April
of this year? Whose dim-witted arse idea was that anyway?
Mid-July,
we ended up stopping into a Party City for some reason or other –
birthday cards maybe. As I meandered around the store, what should
I spy? HALLOWEEN PRODUCTS?! They were hung up on shelves and stacked
in boxes being cataloged and unpacked by the eager little high school
dropouts that work in the stock department.
Now, don’t get me wrong.
Everyone who knows me, knows that I am a Halloween fanatic. Halloween
and Christmas - scary and shiny...kind of like me. That being said,
yes, I actually *do* start *planning* my costume in advance – sometimes
I even start kicking around ideas as early as right after Halloween
the year before as I tend to do custom, real fabric costumes as opposed
to cheapie looking store bought poly ones.
Still, I don’t want stores
trying to force feed me a holiday *months* before it is reasonable
to do so. At least let some of the heat of summer fade a bit before
you try to sell me on late fall. I mean I had not even finished properly
digesting my Fourth of July barbecue yet and here already, Halloween
was being shoved down my throat.
What happened to put out the Halloween
stuff until Halloween passes, shift Halloween stuff into Clearance/storage
and then put out the Thanksgiving stuff and so on and so forth? I
*miss* the days when I didn’t feel bombarded every time I walk into
a local mega grocery/tire/lobotomy store with the ghosts of holidays
yet to come to pass.
It seems in this society everything is moving
faster and faster and faster for no apparent, good reason and this
cultural speed fix has bled over into retail sales. Talk about screwing
with my internal seasonal clock.
On top of it all, kids often get
confused and ask when exactly this holiday or that one is again because
their young minds dare to assume that they wouldn’t be putting out
stuff 3 months too early.
Is it too much to ask to focus and enjoy
one thing at a time before moving onto another? Can I at least *enjoy*
one holiday before you start trying to bilk me out of cash for the
next one?
