Halloween Discussion Forums, Costumes, Horror!

One of my neighbors put up their outdoor Christmas lights this week.

Its a little off-putting.

My bad...

My neighbors are Hindi and this week is Diwali, an autumn celebration recognizing the triumph of light over darkness.

I would have made the connection but I haven't had my coffee yet.

Well, I can cut the stores some slack. After all, we start seeing the first autumnal decorations in July, or sometimes even June in the craft stores. So it's not like there isn't an "autumn creep," and Halloween stuff starts showing up in late August in some places. The fact is, if you are into preparing for any holiday, you generally have to work in advance, plan in advance, and it is like that for Christmas, too. Then, too, Christmas is when most stores make whatever money they are going to make for the year. Up until then, they are just working to break even. So you can't blame them for making business decisions.

We have a new Walmart in town, just opened this week, and it has much more Christmas stuff on display than Halloween stuff. But I can't blame them, because so much of the Halloween buying has already been done, except for the candy. They are just being practical.

Anyway, I love all the holidays. I adhere to my own, self-imposed schedule of display, and I don't worry too much about what others do. Ideally, I like to get into Christmas mode on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, but I don't always get it together that fast.

See I love Christmas just as much as I love Halloween. So October tends to be a really exciting month for me because I'm knee deep in Halloween but also starting to get that Christmas itch.

I personally tend to put up more Christmas than Halloween décor up because Christmas involves a lot more entertaining (dinners, parties, etc) so I have to get an early start.

I get why it irks people though.

Murfreesboro wrote:Well, I can cut the stores some slack. After all, we start seeing the first autumnal decorations in July, or sometimes even June in the craft stores. So it's not like there isn't an "autumn creep," and Halloween stuff starts showing up in late August in some places.

Except Halloween decorations don't interfere with another holiday already being prepared. The space between Independence Day and Halloween is free.

Murfreesboro wrote:The fact is, if you are into preparing for any holiday, you generally have to work in advance, plan in advance, and it is like that for Christmas, too. Then, too, Christmas is when most stores make whatever money they are going to make for the year. Up until then, they are just working to break even. So you can't blame them for making business decisions.

And I don't. I understand the business decisions behind it all. It's just annoying when all the Christmas decorations have almost completely replaced all the Halloween decor by the time Halloween actually comes.

Murfreesboro wrote:Anyway, I love all the holidays.

As do I. Christmas is my second favorite time of the year. I just want to give each one their own room to breathe, so to speak.

I suppose I could just say...it's going to happen anyway...it's like this every year so why be bothered by it?
To be fair, I often see the "Thanksgiving" decorations before the Halloween ones, yet if you live in the United States, Thanksgiving is after Halloween. But since both are fall holidays, I let it slide.

I see both points to this really. I think it would be better to just not worry about it. It is disheartening when the Halloween section at Walmart is minut compared to the Christmas section, and they've had months in advance for the Halloween stuff, and don't ask me why they put the fall/thanksgiving stuff in a completely different section, I think it would be better if they put them in together like the Dollar store did, albeit the fact that the Dollar store is much smaller than Walmart in comparison.

I also have to remember: There are other stores besides Walmart, so maybe a change of shopping destination is in order? I actually think I acquired most of my stuff from the Dollar Tree or Dollar General this year that I did not already get in the form of gifts from kind individuals.

I think the best solution is that if they want to have the Christmas stuff out before Halloween is over, they should plot the store in such a way so that the Halloween stuff is viewed first, then the Christmas stuff, and that way they can both get equal time in together. I love both holidays, although I love Halloween slightly more than Christmas and get a little more excited when the Halloween stuff comes out, especially since after the fourth of July it's a bit of a wait before the next major holiday comes out.

So I think you're both right in certain ways. I'm actually starting to feel a bit of the Christmas itch myself, but that's partly because I've been making crafts for the Christmas season to be a bit ahead of the game and hopefully make some money for the holidays. I have not however, forgotten about Halloween and I'm still very excited for it. I just keep Christmas in a little compartment in my mind and while it's there on the back burner, I can focus on Halloween until November 1st. Now, next year if my craft stuff is successful, then I'll probably start my Halloween stuff in August.

Also, Christmas did get a little bit of a holiday invasion of it's own last year in the form of Valentine's day. Days before Christmas, I started seeing Valentine's day stuff in K-mart. So it goes to show you that it's not so much that Christmas is trying to engulf other holidays, but like Murf said, the stores want to get you thinking about that holiday so you can plan, and hopefully buy stuff for that holiday. But I will agree that it's poor planning, and a bit absurd to push the Halloween stuff to the back when it's not even over yet. I call that poor planning more than anything. Now, if I got really annoyed when the Christmas stuff got equal time with the Halloween stuff, I could probably chalk that up to my own bias toward Halloween.

I saw Halloween stuff up at Michaels, Hobby Lobby and Big Lot's in early August so I'm not surprised to see those same stores going early on Christmas. The bottom is always the bottom line.

Mau, the past several years our grocery store has started selling chocolate Easter eggs at check out between Christmas and New Year's. I find that funny.

Additionally if stores leave stuff out for longer there's more time for people to buy a little at a time and in time but more than they may have if it was only available in that holidays month.

Garfi, the worlds angriest cat, agrees with OP.