Why does the buildup to Christmas start earlier every year?

branie2

There are Christmas shops in New England open all the year round

Samaris

Funny this thread should come up. My fiance was spluttering last night that one of the shops he was in was playing Christmas music in August. Christmas had started to take over the Americans' Thanksgiving, but now it's skipped Halloween/Harvest festival and is right into mid-harvest season?

Stand firm against the Christmas invasion! No Christmasing until at -least- start of Advent/start of December (I'll grumble but allow for whichever is earlier). Punishable by being forced to sit in a cell with a twelve-hour loop of Slade's Merry X-Mas Everyone.

sullivlo

I love Christmas. The entire thing is incredible. The food. The drinks. The time off work. Being able to spend the day eating chocolate in your jammies and not be judged. The joy on the kids faces when Santa comes... I love Christmas.

Unfortunately it's not fun in August, September or October. I begrudgingly accept it in November. On the 1st December I break out the Christmas wardrobe.

But this year, with everything in the world in ****, part of me is enjoying seeing Christmas early. It's giving me something to look forward to.

Widdershins

I don't mind it but it's too early to sustain any sense of wodner or continually look forward to it. It will be an everyday thing by the time it's actually here.

r93kaey5p2izun

I don't think it is getting earlier every year - I think there was a shift to starting earlier some time around 2000 and it's been like that ever since. This thread is the only sign of Christmas I've seen.

I love Christmas but I also love other parts of the year so I would prefer if the build up didn't start until at least Halloween, preferably December. I don't mind seeing the odd tin of sweets in shops, or a Christmas catalogue, but full on Christmas decorations in the shops is sad to see before November. However, I do think there's a gap in the market for a proper Christmas shop in Dublin. I find them in every city I visit to buy souvenir decorations and Lisbon is the only other place I've come across with no Christmas shop.

biko

Doesn't want to hear about Christmas early.

Starts thread about Christmas in August.

patrickbrophy18

NIMAN wrote: »

I hadn't thought of Xmas until you started this thread.

To be fair, the following article may have prompted the poster to start the thread:

http://www.thejournal.ie/christmas-shop-brown-thomas-3550553-Aug2017/

It was quite a prominent article a couple of days ago.

_Dara_

seamus wrote: »

It doesn't. It's all in your head.

What actually happens is that as you get older, you are less aware of the passage of time; you're busy, you're better able to disengage your brain and shut down instead of getting bored.

As a result, every year the Xmas rush sneaks up on you just a little bit faster than you expected. As a child, it felt like Xmas would never come. As an old fogey, it feels like Xmas starts earlier every year.

It doesn't.

No, it does.

Of course Christmas feels like it will never come for a child because they are looking forward to it so much. It doesn't mean that the hype always started as early as it does now. The advertising only started in earnest from late November onwards when I was a kid. The wait for Christmas must be utterly torturous for children these days because the hype does start much earlier now. Now, the advertising starts in earnest the very day after Hallowe'en. That most definitely didn't happen when I was a child in the late 80s and early-to-mid 90s.

andekwarhola wrote: »

Early Christmas buildup at least also provides an invaluable opportunity for the usual bores to wheel out their hoary student union chestnuts about 'consumerism' , 'forced jollity' and capitalism.

If it comes up a lot, it's probably because there is a lot of truth in it. I love the food, family and decorative aspects of Christmas, love them, but I genuinely hate how much pressure the season puts on people financially and the stress that goes with that. And I'm well past my student days. If that makes me a bore, so be it.

Ubbquittious

Ubbquittious wrote: »

At this point only March,April,May,June,July are relatively Christmas-free but those months are also slowly being eaten into and a thicker level of "background Christmas" persists year round.

'A thicker level of background CHristmas'

Had to think on that a minute, but i get ye

branie2

I must hold my hand up here and admit that I like to watch Christmas song songs on Youtube during the summer now and again.

seamus

_Dara_ wrote: »

Now, the advertising starts in earnest the very day after Hallowe'en. That most definitely didn't happen when I was a child in the late 80s and early-to-mid 90s.

I too was a child in the 80s to 90s and I remember seeing Xmas ads just after Hallowe'en and hearing the lamenting that Xmas never used to start being advertised until December.

I'm sure that was true at one point; remembering that this country was dirt poor a few decades ago; but the race to Xmas began after Halloween for as long as I can remember.

It's not full-on. There are certain iconic ads and brands that deliberately hold off, if you watch. Guinness, Coke, Budweiser, etc all hold their ads off until late November. But the ads in general start trickling out at the start of November and always have in my experience.

razorblunt

I live in Edinburgh and there's a shop on the Royal Mile open all year round. Must be good money to be made, otherwise it would be a Starbucks by now!

The likes of BT only open their depts. in August for the fanfare and grumbles they generate on social media, I'm convinced of it. Folk will still go in for a wander so the footfall count will justify it.
Personally I try and block it all out until the middle of November at the earliest.
Quite hard to do this year with Boots "re-imagining" an Xmas song for their summer advert. Incredibly lazy marketing to say the least.

Widdershins

So I got my live Christmas tree!

_Dara_

seamus wrote: »

I too was a child in the 80s to 90s and I remember seeing Xmas ads just after Hallowe'en and hearing the lamenting that Xmas never used to start being advertised until December.

I'm sure that was true at one point; remembering that this country was dirt poor a few decades ago; but the race to Xmas began after Halloween for as long as I can remember.

It's not full-on. There are certain iconic ads and brands that deliberately hold off, if you watch. Guinness, Coke, Budweiser, etc all hold their ads off until late November. But the ads in general start trickling out at the start of November and always have in my experience.

Well, we'll have to disagree because it didn't happen in my 1980s and 1990s corner of Ireland.

It is very much full on now. The department store and big retailer television Christmas ads, apart from maybe John Lewis, start in earnest on the 1st of November. And countless other companies too. That a few companies hold back doesn't change that. It's not a trickle, it's an opening of the dam. It is most certainly more intense than 20 to 30 years ago. The change from one day to the next is staggering, at least to me. Such noise.

freshpopcorn

_Dara_ wrote: »

Well, we'll have to disagree because it didn't happen in my 1980s and 1990s corner of Ireland.

I was born in Early November 1992. My parents kept a few papers from a few days before and after. One day I found them and they were full of ads about Christmas toys/appliances gifts for Christmas.
I was always l was always lead to believe that these ads didn't begin until December until I saw the papers!

Beasty

I recall in the 70's we used to wait the Autumn/Winter mail order catalogue coming out around July, as it would have a all the kids toys and other XMas stuff filling up the backend and we could start planning our pleas to Santa.

Of course if it does continue to start earlier each year at some stage everything will overlap and we'll be getting ready for the next but one XMas (or back to square 1).

_Dara_

freshpopcorn wrote: »

I was born in Early November 1992. My parents kept a few papers from a few days before and after. One day I found them and they were full of ads about Christmas toys/appliances gifts for Christmas.
I was always l was always lead to believe that these ads didn't begin until December until I saw the papers!

Beasty wrote: »

I recall in the 70's we used to wait the Autumn/Winter mail order catalogue coming out around July, as it would have a all the kids toys and other XMas stuff filling up the backend and we could start planning our pleas to Santa.

Of course if it does continue to start earlier each year at some stage everything will overlap and we'll be getting ready for the next but one XMas (or back to square 1).

Yes, we'd get the Toymaster catalogue in maybe early Autumn but that makes some sense to me. We'd say what we wanted and forget about it for a while then until the start of Advent and when the Christmas concert prep would begin at school.

Last year, my husband and I watched the telly on November 1st, completely in horror at the aggressive onslaught for Christmas ads on all channels. We're talking every ad, pretty much, was a Christmas ad. Seriously. It absolutely was not like that until the last few years really. Not even ten years ago.

WoollyRedHat

I blame Wizzard.

branie2

The late Gerry Ryan did a week dedicated to Christmas in July once

LordSutch

Planning on going Easter shopping in October to get some bargain chocolate eggs, chocolate bunnies etc, ready for Easter (which will only be five months away) at that point in the year :eek:

Spider Web

_Dara_ wrote: »

Well, we'll have to disagree because it didn't happen in my 1980s and 1990s corner of Ireland.

It is very much full on now. The department store and big retailer television Christmas ads, apart from maybe John Lewis, start in earnest on the 1st of November. And countless other companies too. That a few companies hold back doesn't change that. It's not a trickle, it's an opening of the dam. It is most certainly more intense than 20 to 30 years ago. The change from one day to the next is staggering, at least to me. Such noise.

September is when Tesco deck out their Christmas section and when that Christmas Movies TV channel starts airing. When we were kids in the 80s and 90s, mere murmurs of Christmas would commence after Halloween, but that was it. Murmurs only. Ads and decorations only started two or three weeks after.

blade1

valoren wrote: »

Only 130 sleeps to go!!!!

Even better news for insomniacs.
Only 2 sleeps 'til Christmas for them!!:D

_Dara_

Spider Web wrote: »

September is when Tesco deck out their Christmas section and when that Christmas Movies TV channel starts airing. When we were kids in the 80s and 90s, mere murmurs of Christmas would commence after Halloween, but that was it. Murmurs only. Ads and decorations only started two or three weeks after.

+1. You'd hear faint rumblings post-Hallowe'en but that was it. Now it's a full blown storm.

People coming out in a jaded, knowing way with "Oh it was exactly the same twenty years ago, you just didn't notice. People just like to grumble." are talking through their hoops. It simply wasn't.

branie2

According to some sources, Jesus was born in September, so that could be Christmas coming early.

LordSutch

I'm going to start doing my Christmas shopping for Christmas 2018, sixteen months from now, before the rush ....

I don't want to miss any bargains!

erica74

I heard an ad on the radio today for one of those santa experience thingies, I haven't even thought about Halloween yet!

freshpopcorn

erica74 wrote: »

I heard an ad on the radio today for one of those santa experience thingies, I haven't even thought about Halloween yet!

Those things generally start in about mid November tough and they can book out fast. There a little like Christmas parties.

Spider Web

_Dara_ wrote: »

+1. You'd hear faint rumblings post-Hallowe'en but that was it. Now it's a full blown storm.

People coming out in a jaded, knowing way with "Oh it was exactly the same twenty years ago, you just didn't notice. People just like to grumble." are talking through their hoops. It simply wasn't.

Aye, it sometimes feels like "Things haven't changed - you're just getting old/looking at life with rose-tinted specs" has become the new "In my day, things were better!"

_Dara_

Spider Web wrote: »

Aye, it sometimes feels like "Things haven't changed - you're just getting old/looking at life with rose-tinted specs" has become the new "In my day, things were better!"

Oh, totally. There's an air of "You're such a sheep/conformist/unimaginative sod to be coming out with that "in my day" stuff, maaaan, things have always been this way." Some things have feckin' changed, FFS!

Poor Uncle Tom

FFS it's August! why am I hearing ads for the 'greatest santa experience' on the radio? It just makes me want to never visit that place......