Bah, humbug

So, apparently all stores have switched over to Christmas mode already... and the holiday is already starting to grate on my nerves.

For those that don't know, I did a short stint working at Michael's (the arts and crafts store) one year. I started working there in the summer of that year, and I saw Christmas paraphernalia start to appear as early as August. This year, I saw full-blown Christmas crap at multiple department stores as early as October. The holiday seems to start earlier and earlier, with more and more stores buying into the trend.

Now, don't get me wrong... I don't hate Christmas itself. The holiday is a great time of cheer, giving, and good-will. However, I don't think there's any really good excuse to put Christmas merchandise out this early. Nonetheless, people tend to provide plenty of excuses as to why this habit exists and the Christmas holiday seems to have been inflated from one day to several months. Here's a random assortment of excuses, with my abbreviated answers to them.

1. Christmas represents the spirit of giving and good will towards others. Why are you upset that this spirit of giving?

~While I agree that the spirit behind Christmas is important, it's a bit hypocritical to limit good will and giving to merely the Christmas season... you can extend this to an all-year event through various charities, as well as just being a decent human being.
~I am not bashing the idea of getting one's Christmas shopping done early... you can do shopping throughout the year for people if you can find something that they really, truly want. However, Christmas decorations shouldn't be necessary until you want to start decorating for Christmas... which, again, should wait until the end of the damn Macy's day parade.

2. Christmas is an important holiday in the Christian religion. As a Christian, you should be proud that people are recognizing its importance and embracing the holiday. (Note: While I understand how sarcastic I sound and how extreme, I have heard various incarnations of this argument/complaint)

~This is actually a horrible standard, and quite hypocritical. While Christmas is an important holiday in the Christian religion, it is not nearly as important as Easter. And while I've seen people buy Christmas decorations in August and put their trees and lights up almost two months before the date, I have yet to see Easter sales in January or Easter egg hunts in February. If you were to extend a holiday for religious reasons, you should extend Easter (of course, this might conflict with the marketability of Valentine's Day).

3. Our economy's in a rut. People need more time to buy their Christmas stuff... so stretching out Christmas this year is for budgeting and economic reasons.

~While this seems like an intact reason, I don't think it's really as reasonable a solution as people think. Honestly, people should be budgeting for Christmas year-round, and should be doing their shopping accordingly. And while layaway may have its appeal, I seriously doubt Christmas decorations are being put on layaway. For that matter, is spending $400 over the course of three months really that much different than squirreling away that money so you can spend it all in one month? Or do we not trust the American consumer enough to be able to save like that? Personally, I think people market more so we will spend more, despite the fact that our economy's in a rut. And while spending more MIGHT be good for the economy, it's probably not so good for people who are afraid of losing their mortgage any day.

Can you think of any reasons to justify listening to Christmas carols for months on end?