Christmas creep

by Elizabeth on November 20, 2009 · 2 comments

in Cool stuff

cominthrough
Photo from Daily Trojan

No, this isn’t a post about the strange uncle who shows up to your family events…

If it feels like Christmas is beginning earlier and earlier each year, you’re right! Christmas creep is a term that was first used in the 1980′s to describe the phenomenon of merchants and retailers exploiting the commercialized status of Christmas by moving up the start of the holiday shopping season. It’s a strategy that drives most of us crazy, and extends the season to utterly unfestive levels.

Tim (who is American) can’t believe how early the Christmas shopping season begins here. Most people who live in the US are used to waiting until after Thanksgiving before entertaining the idea of Christmas, and but here in Australia we don’t have that extra holiday to break up the seasons. Christmas stuff began appearing in department stores here in August, and the Christmas carols have been playing for a solid month. By the time Christmas finally rolls around, we all feel like decking the halls with GIANT BARRELS OF HATE, and we only have 8 months to recover from it!

But even in the US the line between Thanksgiving and Christmas is becoming very blurred.

Consumerist posted this picture today, a sign from one retailer who is refusing to succumb to Christmas creep. As somebody who actually cares a bit about the origins and meaning of Christmas, I really applaud their stance!

nordstromchristmascreep

(Consumerist wrote about Nordstrom’s stance in 2007 too.)

This picture reminded me of the year that Coles put out its Easter eggs in the week between Christmas and New Years Day. Karma came along and blessed Brisbane with a hideous heatwave, which was so revolting that it actually caused my local supermarket’s airconditioning to break down altogether. I walked in one of those days to pick up a couple of groceries, and was able to witness first-hand the aisles of melted chocolate eggs being tossed into wheelie bins.

That was a good day…

zombie-manger
Photo from www.jasons.org

What do you guys think about Christmas creep? Do Christmas carols in October make you want to punch Santa, or is it just me?

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  • http://scottiemonster.blogspot.com Louise

    I’m with you, it gets to be far to much. My birthday is in late October, I remember when I was younger there was no Christmas stuff around in the shops for my birthday. As time has passed, stuff started appearing just after, around the same time and just before my birthday. Now it’s (as you noted) well before. How much of this do they think people can take? On the cynical side, just what exactly can anyone DO about it? Bah humbug.

  • Marieke

    It happens here in the US too though. Some of the tide is stemmed a little bit by Thanksgiving and Halloween, but not all that much.

    I’ve had it on more than one occasion that I’ve gone into a store before Halloween to find they’d already cleared their Halloween stuff to a tiny shelf in the back, and the Christmas stuff has taken over.

    Honestly, I wish it’d stop until it was December. I don’t want to have Christmas shit for 3 months before the event. And as you pointed out, you just end up being completely sick of it, and the actual day is almost ridiculously disappointing as a result. Though also you’re glad when it happens, because you know you’ll be free of the merchandising stuff.

    I think it’s also why there seems to be a backlash against it, and against a lot of consumerist crap. Why things like Etsy are taking hold rather strongly, and Shop Local programs. It all ties in for me.

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