Joanie, IâÂÂm with you on this one! Our MichaelâÂÂs has cleared all their aisles and set up the Christmas stuff everywhere.....and I donâÂÂt even have my full Thanksgiving menu planned yet! ItâÂÂs too early for me, and hearing Christmas music this early ruins the enjoyment of hearing it closer to the actual holiday because by then IâÂÂm sick of hearing it over and over. Bah humbug2!

What I don't like is Christmas superseding Remembrance/Veterans Day on November 11. There should be a by-law against that.

We owe our veterans so much.

I agree. So crazy. One of the radio stations I listen to begins playing uninterrupted Christmas music earlier and earlier each year. This year they started last week. I just switch to another station for a few weeks. I doubt I'm the only one who finds this distasteful, and wonder whether they care what their listeners think about it.

I went to the mall with DD last Wed. and SANTA was already there. I told DD I was going to poke his eyes out. (She's almost 13 so it's okay to say that.)

And yes, our CVS was fully stocked w/ Christmas cr-p the other day.

I just WISH it wouldn't sell yet!!!!

But sadly it does, this early, so it unfortunately becomes "worth it"....ugghh...

Don't even get me started on the K-Mart & Target Thanksgiving-Day openings....
Should be a G*d-da^^n CRIME to do that!!!!!!!!!!!

....yet the idiotic masses still trudge there to buy worthless crap a few hours early...

Faron

JoanieP I agree. Too early is just that too early.
SueB, your Magazine Life humor may not have gotten me laughing, but your poking Santa's eyes out did and your comments about your daughter's age afterwards making it okay to say that. LOL I didn't think it was ever okay to want to poke someones eyes out. LOL I'm sorry, but I find that just so darn funny!
Faron you said that very well. Yes, it's sad, very sad, but you're right. You can bet those stores will have shoppers on Thanksgiving day. This is why I started doing most of my shopping online anymore. I'm sick of the hype over holiday shopping when, as blfenton wrote we all but forget our veterans. Where's the hype about what they did/do for us? Yes some towns still have parades and many restaurants offer free meals or entrees for them, but it's one day which is not near as much attention as we see when it comes to getting us to spend out hard earned money on things we, and those we give them too, don't need.

This post was edited by justgotabme on Sun, Nov 10, 13 at 14:17

Okay, for the record, I would never poke anyone's eyes out. We have a weird sense of humor in my family. I meant that she doesn't believe in Santa any more so it's okay for me to joke about causing him bodily harm. Maybe that doesn't sound right either. Never mind, carry on...

Made me chuckle, sueb20 :)
Neighbors across the street usually put up their exterior Christmas decorations and lights Thanksgiving weekend. This year they went up a few days after Halloween. *sigh*

I couldn't agree more! I'm able to block out the visual stuff, but the music drives me crazy! Some of those songs you hear so many times- it makes me want to bang my head against the
wall!! For example, Madonna singing Santa Baby.

I was so peeved when I saw the first tv xmas ad on before halloween! And by the time xmas rolls around the store displays look so shabby...and who the heck knows how old that candy is by the time you go to buy it. Yuck.

I'm with you on this. I forget what store I was in but they were playing Christmas music. We've had a mild fall and I wasn't even wearing a coat. It just seemed ridiculous.

Perhaps because Thanksgiving is so late this year the retailers started early enough to get in a certain number of holiday shopping weeks.

I cracked up at poking Santa's eyes out. Jolly old blind elf.

I couldn't believe it when some of the stores had Christmas stuff up two weeks before Halloween. Come on, really?

Oh SueB I did NOT think you would ever really poke someones eyes out, which is why I found it so funny, especially when you referenced your daughter's age. It just struck my funny bone. And I wasn't the only one either.

No one has mentioned the overwhelming cinnamon and pine scents in the stores. And it's not even REAL cinnamon or pine scent.

I cannot go into Michaels this time of the year due to that stench.

As much as I like the scent and taste of a little rosemary when cooking, I don't like the scent of 20-30 little rosemary trees for sale in the produce dept. this time of year. Like the cinnamon and pine scents pesky mentioned, I have to hold my breath when I'm walking near any of those things.

I was in a dept store yesterday and, when I noticed they had the decorations up, was surprised and relieved that they weren't playing Xmas music yet.

Pesky1 I forgot all about that part, but yes if I forget and go into a store or anywhere near the area in a store where they have the soaked pinecones I have an instant sinus headache. I'm hyper sensitive to many scents so instead of sneezing I get extreme facial pain which in turn causes me to clench my teeth which causes jaw and ear pain and eventually neck pain so I have to avoid shopping during this time of year unless I want to be in perpetual pain.

A card I recently recieved on Facebook reads:

"Every time a Christmas tree is lit before Thanksgiving an elf drowns a baby reindeer"

ML

HH...those smells are making me ill too. And it bugs me when I have no clue where they are coming from.

Yes, before HW. I was in a store and those dumb stuffed toys or robots or whatever with the sounds when you walk by them. Or a kid has to poke the sound recorder. I can't imagine how the workers are putting up with this.

Also, the sales are all over the place and I hate shopping.

By the time Christmas gets here we are all going to be mad hatters.

Maddielee,
Your witty comment reminded me of the joy I discovered last year reading about The Inappropriate Elf on the Shelf.

There is so much HAVE to stuff that is stressful around the holidays, that I am tempted to get an elf to add some comic relief!

(if you have not heard about this, google it. And not around kids who are young. You will be laughing and they will want to know why)

Our dept admin assist's son-in-law is a store manager for a major office supply retailer. He has to go in on Thanksgiving morning because they will be open, then he gets off for dinner from something like noon-5, then he has to go back at 5 p.m.

I have always been a Black Friday shopper. I would go at 6 a.m. usually, but they keep pushing the times back. I do not want to go out literally in the middle of the night. What was also bad at some of the department stores is even some of more senior ladies who work there had to come in at 3:30 a.m. one year.

Ah yes, Black Friday. Remember when there wasn't such a thing? I do. Back when Christmas was more about celebrating Christ's birth than the love of the almighty dollar.

I have NEVER, EVER shopped on Black Friday, and never will!! I DESPISE the "news" reports on how many percentage points the stores are up or down, and refuse support the materialistic ideas that retail wants us to believe about Christmas.

There.

Nancy

I never shop on Black Friday or the day after Christmas...in fact, I rarely go shopping anymore, preferring to shop online. I can't stand the weekend crowds, especially during the holidays. And am vowing this year to just get my grown kids a few things each and $...which is what they prefer anyway. I have always made myself crazy buying tons of stuff so they would have plenty to open and by Christmas Day I'm exhausted....no more!

Full disclosure, I am not a Black Friday shopper. It doesn't appeal to me but to each their own.

I don't think shopping on that day, or any other day leading to Xmas, has anything to do with whether or not you hold religious beliefs. It's about shopping. Attending religious services and doing unto others is about religion. They are not mutually exclusive activities. A person of faith can enjoy shopping. A person who enjoys the thrill of Black Friday can still hold firm religious beliefs.

When I was a kid, we didn't even buy the Christmas tree until around Dec 15. Dh and I drove through town last night and saw a Christmas tree lit up in someone's windows. Sheesh! I'd get tired of that by Christmas.

What I hate is that Black Friday shopping is starting on Thanksgiving Day now. So not only do people willingly give up a day with family, but others are forced to work on that day. And Thanksgiving used to be a holiday without controversy.

Yes Marti...we would get the tree around the 15th and take it down New Year's day. In fact, when I was really little until we moved when I was 6 (and I was the youngest) my folks would not do anything until we were in bed Christmas Eve! They would spend all night bringing in the tree, decorating it, putting toys together, putting all the decorations out, etc..I don't know how they did it! Im thinking it was an east coast (Philly) thing. When we moved to California when I was 6 the neighbors all had their trees and deocrations up (AFTER Thanksgiving)..so then my folks followed suit.

We didn't start Christmas decorating until after my father's birthday on Dec. 13. I still don't like to decorate early, and I like to keep the tree up until New Year's. My philosophy is don't leave decorations out so long that they require dusting.

Thanksgiving night store openings is a recipe for disaster. There'll be many more drunk people on the road and in the stores if they haven't had a chance to sleep off Thanksgiving dinner and drinking.

Regarding how shopping interferes with the "true meaning of Christmas". I grew up in an Irish Catholic family, attended Catholic school, and went to church every Sunday. That didn't stop us from shopping! My father didn't have good Christmases as a child (last of 7 boys and not really wanted by his parents), so he always made sure we had a good Christmas with lots of presents.

Can't stop progress or commercialism! :D

I don't need to shop nearly as much as I used to (one of the benefits of living long enough to collect too much stuff!) so avoid most of the early seasonal whoop-la. Nothing I can do about it altho if I were Queen of the Universe I'd make some laws about the subject. No Christmas advertising or selling before December 1st might be a good one!

I'll vote for you luckygal.

Me too luckygal...and add NO stores open on Thanksgiving or Christmas....everyone gets a break to just be with family and friends!