Why do stores put up Halloween stuff in the middle of July

[roadman65]

Christmas music in the middle of November is too far. When played that early you are already sick of the songs by December 1.

[mgk920]

in the early to mid 20th century, the Friday after Thanksgiving was the 'Christmas Opening' for retail storefronts (ie, downtown).

Mike

[vdeane]

Not to mention that, if the stuff is out early, customers have to buy it early, even if they would rather wait, because if they do wait, it might not be available any more.  I've found that waiting until Easter to buy Easter candy is a good way to have some things already be gone from store shelves.  The stores where I am usually run out of single-serving Cadbury mini eggs about a month before, so I have to buy them before I would consider it time if I want to get any at all.  And since the chocolate smell leaks out, that means I inevitably can't have them around Easter, because they'll be eaten by then.

[roadman65]

in the early to mid 20th century, the Friday after Thanksgiving was the 'Christmas Opening' for retail storefronts (ie, downtown).

Mike

Woodbridge Center in Woodbridge, NJ had Santa Arrive on Black Friday making a Grand Entrance to mark the start of the shopping Season.

Now Santa is there in all malls before Thanksgiving.

[CtrlAltDel]

Halloween isn't for another 2 months, and already stores are prepping for the spooky holiday.
But why now? Can't they just wait until September to release it?
Walmart has theirs online, Target too, and now Lowes?

Not to pile on, but Halloween is 3 months away, 94 days, to be exact, from when I write this.

[Scott5114]

Costco had Halloween costumes out in May.

Unfortunately, most retailers are trying to get a jump on each season earlier and earlier. As a former CVS employee I can attest that if the Halloween stuff is out, the Christmas stuff is in the back. I worked on New Year's Eve (a 12-hour shift, but for triple pay, probably the only decent paycheck I got from them) and the Easter stuff was already in the back when I went to help unload a truck. The truck contained Valentine's Day items.

Why is this "unfortunate?" I truly don't understand why this bothers people so much. They wouldn't put it out there if people didn't buy it.

It's unfortunate mainly because it really makes time seem to go by a lot faster than it already does.

Also, it really waters down the experience of the holiday. If you've been seeing Christmas stuff for two months by the time the actual holiday happens, it's kind of hard to get excited about it. At that point it's worn out its welcome and doesn't feel special at all.

[Max Rockatansky]

My wife would wholeheartedly disagree with that statement.  She's been browsing all the Halloween stuff every time I take her to a major store.  Part of our upcoming trip to Michigan involves going to a Christmas mega store on her birthday.  Normal people tend to like things such as early holiday item shopping or seasonally themed stores.

[Plutonic Panda]

I'm really sick of retail stores putting out holiday stuff so far in advance. It makes the holidays less special. What good is it celebrating Christmas if you're seeing Christmas shit for damn near half of the fucking year.

[Ted$8roadFan]

Seeing Halloween decorations now is even more absurd then seeing Valentine's Day candy at New Year's.

[SEWIGuy]

I'm really sick of retail stores putting out holiday stuff so far in advance. It makes the holidays less special. What good is it celebrating Christmas if you're seeing Christmas shit for damn near half of the fucking year.

Your holiday is made less special because of a retail display?

[Max Rockatansky]

I'm really sick of retail stores putting out holiday stuff so far in advance. It makes the holidays less special. What good is it celebrating Christmas if you're seeing Christmas shit for damn near half of the fucking year.

Your holiday is made less special because of a retail display?

The easy answer to that is just don't go to the local big box store. 

[Plutonic Panda]

I'm really sick of retail stores putting out holiday stuff so far in advance. It makes the holidays less special. What good is it celebrating Christmas if you're seeing Christmas shit for damn near half of the fucking year.

Your holiday is made less special because of a retail display?

When people put 3 months in advance, yes. When I see Halloween shit in July, yes. When I see Christmas stuff before thanksgiving and Halloween, yes.

[SEWIGuy]

I'm really sick of retail stores putting out holiday stuff so far in advance. It makes the holidays less special. What good is it celebrating Christmas if you're seeing Christmas shit for damn near half of the fucking year.

Your holiday is made less special because of a retail display?

When people put 3 months in advance, yes. When I see Halloween shit in July, yes. When I see Christmas stuff before thanksgiving and Halloween, yes.

I have to be honest with you, that's really odd.

To be Christmas is about celebrating the religious nature of the holiday, and spending time with family as part of that celebration. What retail stores do has absolutely no bearing on that.

[mgk920]

Seeing the occasional 'Christmas in July' sale was bad enough as a kid . . .

Mike

[Max Rockatansky]

I mean hey, I don't like the big name stores myself.  All the same, none of them is shaping my world view or altering level of enjoyment I get out a holiday. 

[vdeane]

I'm really sick of retail stores putting out holiday stuff so far in advance. It makes the holidays less special. What good is it celebrating Christmas if you're seeing Christmas shit for damn near half of the fucking year.

Your holiday is made less special because of a retail display?

When people put 3 months in advance, yes. When I see Halloween shit in July, yes. When I see Christmas stuff before thanksgiving and Halloween, yes.

I have to be honest with you, that's really odd.

To be Christmas is about celebrating the religious nature of the holiday, and spending time with family as part of that celebration. What retail stores do has absolutely no bearing on that.

Can't speak for @Plutonic Panda, but I'm non-religious, so for me the holidays are just time spent with family and the overall "festive mood", so the stores and whatnot going all-out with displays and music and the like early definitely lessens the uniqueness of the latter (that's not to say that I won't occasionally listen to Christmas music out of season, but not crooners and certainly not all the time like many radio stations do starting in November).  With Halloween it's worth, since I don't have kids, don't have any parties to go to, and candy is no longer a uniquely Halloween thing for me since I can just buy it from the grocery store whenever (and whatever stash I get to mark Halloween gets smaller every year).  At least most houses don't put their displays up absurdly early, but there was one house near me that had their giant skeleton up for close to six months.  I do give them points for creativity by sticking a Santa hat on it to re-use for Christmas, but come January, it had worn out its welcome (and wouldn't be gone for two more months).

[roadman65]

Exactly. All denominations and non denominations both agreed Christmas is for family and to celebrate love. However, it isn't the case as even airlines eliminated skeleton flights and crews on Christmas Day to make money over them letting their employees spend time with families. So Christmas Day now has even more flights than many other flight days despite tv sitcoms still depicting that airlines don't fly on said holiday.

[SEWIGuy]

I'm really sick of retail stores putting out holiday stuff so far in advance. It makes the holidays less special. What good is it celebrating Christmas if you're seeing Christmas shit for damn near half of the fucking year.

Your holiday is made less special because of a retail display?

When people put 3 months in advance, yes. When I see Halloween shit in July, yes. When I see Christmas stuff before thanksgiving and Halloween, yes.

I have to be honest with you, that's really odd.

To be Christmas is about celebrating the religious nature of the holiday, and spending time with family as part of that celebration. What retail stores do has absolutely no bearing on that.

Can't speak for @Plutonic Panda, but I'm non-religious, so for me the holidays are just time spent with family and the overall "festive mood", so the stores and whatnot going all-out with displays and music and the like early definitely lessens the uniqueness of the latter (that's not to say that I won't occasionally listen to Christmas music out of season, but not crooners and certainly not all the time like many radio stations do starting in November).  With Halloween it's worth, since I don't have kids, don't have any parties to go to, and candy is no longer a uniquely Halloween thing for me since I can just buy it from the grocery store whenever (and whatever stash I get to mark Halloween gets smaller every year).  At least most houses don't put their displays up absurdly early, but there was one house near me that had their giant skeleton up for close to six months.  I do give them points for creativity by sticking a Santa hat on it to re-use for Christmas, but come January, it had worn out its welcome (and wouldn't be gone for two more months).

Man, a lot of you spend way too much time allowing others to impact the things you value.

[Plutonic Panda]

I'm really sick of retail stores putting out holiday stuff so far in advance. It makes the holidays less special. What good is it celebrating Christmas if you're seeing Christmas shit for damn near half of the fucking year.

Your holiday is made less special because of a retail display?

When people put 3 months in advance, yes. When I see Halloween shit in July, yes. When I see Christmas stuff before thanksgiving and Halloween, yes.

I have to be honest with you, that's really odd.

To be Christmas is about celebrating the religious nature of the holiday, and spending time with family as part of that celebration. What retail stores do has absolutely no bearing on that.

Can't speak for @Plutonic Panda, but I'm non-religious, so for me the holidays are just time spent with family and the overall "festive mood", so the stores and whatnot going all-out with displays and music and the like early definitely lessens the uniqueness of the latter (that's not to say that I won't occasionally listen to Christmas music out of season, but not crooners and certainly not all the time like many radio stations do starting in November).  With Halloween it's worth, since I don't have kids, don't have any parties to go to, and candy is no longer a uniquely Halloween thing for me since I can just buy it from the grocery store whenever (and whatever stash I get to mark Halloween gets smaller every year).  At least most houses don't put their displays up absurdly early, but there was one house near me that had their giant skeleton up for close to six months.  I do give them points for creativity by sticking a Santa hat on it to re-use for Christmas, but come January, it had worn out its welcome (and wouldn't be gone for two more months).

I'm not religious either. But it does kind of take the fun out of holidays when I like them to be a special time of the year and it becomes less special when you see them commercialized for months and months before they happen.

[Max Rockatansky]

External influences only become a factor if you allow to be.  It isn't as though Sam Walton is kicking down your door to advertise Christmas decor. 

[GaryV]

I understand the sentiment that too much exposure cheapens the holiday feeling.

For a while the company I worked for did performance evaluations early in the year. They were based on what you did the prior year. The rating you got determined the raise you would receive. But the raises didn't start until late in the year, Sept or Oct. By the time they came around, you had been so used to the idea that a raise was coming - eventually - that when it actually showed up it wasn't that big of a deal any more. Because now it was almost time to write up your progress for the next evaluation.

Instead of being exasperated by holiday decor and merchandise showing up so early, just live with it and determine to celebrate when the holiday actually gets here. It can be done.

An aside: In the church calendar, Advent is the period of 4 Sundays leading up to Christmas, a time for preparation and examination. Then we have the Christmas Eve and Christmas services, and it seems like it's over. It's not supposed to be - Christmas is supposed to last to Epiphany, being the "12 Days of Christmas" (absent the wacky true love presents).

[Plutonic Panda]

External influences only become a factor if you allow to be.  It isn't as though Sam Walton is kicking down your door to advertise Christmas decor. 

Nobody is saying that. It's not something I loose sleep over. It would just be nice if we could keep Halloween sales until around September. Thanksgiving until after Halloween. And then Christmas until after Thanksgiving. I'm not demanding that happens. Yes, obviously people are buying shit or they wouldn't be doing this. Society is a bunch of crap. It's no different than the same people that will complain about a Walmart being built near their neighborhood and then shop there after it's built. This is a discussion forum and I'm giving my opinion. It's not just big box stores that do this shit either I've seen smaller mom and Pop shops do this as well.

It would just be nice to see Holiday themed decorations and sells put out closer to around the time the holiday is.

[Scott5114]

that's not to say that I won't occasionally listen to Christmas music out of season, but not crooners and certainly not all the time like many radio stations do starting in November

Oh, God, I just realized that since I live in the crooner capital of the world, that probably has implications on what Christmas here is like. Well, that will be an experience.

At some point I might need to sit down and find a way to learn to like the music of all those guys we named streets after.

To be Christmas is about celebrating the religious nature of the holiday, and spending time with family as part of that celebration. What retail stores do has absolutely no bearing on that.

And see, in my family, Thanksgiving was traditionally the big extended-family holiday. And I'm not religious. So my experience of the holiday is as more of a cultural thing...meaning external influences, like what big box stores are doing, are a big part of my experience of it.

It isn't as though Sam Walton is kicking down your door to advertise Christmas decor. 

Is that not exactly what TV and Internet advertising is?

[Max Rockatansky]

Nobody said you have to watch TV much less pay attention to what is on it.  The TV can always be turned off if it becomes too annoying. 

[1995hoo]

To answer the original post's question, stores do it because people will buy that sort of crap months in advance.

....

An aside: In the church calendar, Advent is the period of 4 Sundays leading up to Christmas, a time for preparation and examination. Then we have the Christmas Eve and Christmas services, and it seems like it's over. It's not supposed to be ....

It's not just Christmas. Lent is a liturgically austere season, to be followed by the 50-day "festival season" of Easter. I suppose Easter has lost its meaning even more than Christmas, though.

The American approach has become to celebrate a holiday in advance of the actual holiday and then to declare, "It's over, on to the next" as soon as the 24-hour holiday itself has ended. I know one fellow who is insistent that Christmas decorations should not remain up after January 1. Our neighborhood says January 15, but they also say that seasonal holiday decorations may remain up for 14 days after the holiday. I've always been tempted to leave outdoor Christmas decorations up past January 15 and then to say, "Orthodox Christmas is on January 7, so I have until January 21." But it's not worth bothering because I simply ignore their January 15 deadline in favor of using the three-day Martin Luther King weekend (which may or may not coincide with January 15) to take down the Christmas stuff. Our only outdoor stuff consists of lights spread over the azalea bushes and none of them are lit up after January 6 anyway.

Maybe I'm superstitious, but I don't like celebrating milestones like birthdays or anniversaries in advance of the actual day. If the actual day is not an option (say, a Wednesday night makes it hard to go somewhere), I prefer to wait until the weekend after. Why? Because nothing guarantees you're actually going to make it to the day you're celebrating. I think in terms of how my father died right about a month prior to my parents' 50th anniversary, for example. But with that said, my wife and I have gone out to dinner on the Saturday before our anniversary on occasion when the preceding Saturday worked out better, so who am I to talk. (This year it fell on Sunday—the day before yesterday—and we went out of town for a four-day weekend.)