My dad called me recently to ask what size jeans I wear. It was the middle of October and he was Christmas shopping with my mom in Seattle. I told him it seemed a little early to be buying presents, but he disagreed. He hates shopping, but strives for efficiency.
About two hours later he sent me a text message: “What do you want for your big gift?”
I guess Christmas season is here, which is apparent if you wandered into a department store recently and noticed the fake trees and wreaths for sale. Halloween was so last week and the march toward the joy and anxiety of the holidays has begun in earnest.
On Nov. 6, the Lifetime Network will begin airing Christmas movies and will show almost 50 holiday-themed films in the weeks before Thanksgiving, according to Journal Sentinel TV and film critic Duane Dudek. Yes, before Thanksgiving, which once was the unofficial kickoff to the season.
But that’s changed, especially this year since the number of days between Thanksgiving and Christmas is only 26, the shortest possible time. Last year, there were 32. And retailers have responded by basically declaring that Nov. 28 should be celebrated with turkey during the day and shopping at night.
More department stores, such as Walmart and Target, are opening and posting deals Thanksgiving evening, instead of waiting to start their respective Black Friday sales the next day. When Macy’s announced it would do the same this year, the Daily Herald of suburban Chicago interviewed a woman who said simply, “It is the death of Thanksgiving.”
That seems like a premature obituary. Shops wouldn’t open if shoppers didn’t show up. But they apparently do – enough of them wanting to fight crowds the day of Thanksgiving to make it worthwhile for the companies that profit off them to open.
I take a different tack and notoriously wait until the waning days of the season to buy anyone anything. And, when I do, I often stare blankly at aisles of items for hours, on the phone with a family member from whom I am trying to glean essential gift information, before leaving empty handed.
Last year, a gift I ordered online for my nephew didn’t arrive in time for Christmas. Instead, he opened an empty box with a screen grab of what it would look like – basically, the worst gift a 10-year-old could ever get.
So, perhaps my parents are onto something as they wander Seattle shopping malls in October. And who can blame advertisers for their early fall Christmas promotions when the season has already extended until before Halloween? Kmart announced that it was beginning layaway sales 105 days before Christmas. That’s September, if you’re counting. And it’s the new normal.
The National Retail Federation says about 40 percent of people will do their Christmas shopping before Halloween this year. That means many of your parents joined mine this month buying gifts and many of them will be a little less stressed when Dec. 25 draws closer.
There are worse things than extending the holiday season, which, to me, is the best time of the year. I enjoy the music and the food, the parties and even the mad dash to buy last-minute items. And when Lifetime begins airing Christmas movies next week, I’ll probably watch a few of them.
I won’t begin shopping for at least a month, probably longer, but I already returned the favor and asked my dad what he wanted. He said he wanted my sister and I to quit fighting – the same gift he’s been requesting for the last 20 years. In reality, he didn’t know. Because who really knows what they want for Christmas before Halloween?