Is it me, or is this just way to early?

[lovecraft68]

This isn't a writing related thread, just something that drives me nuts.

I turned on my favorite radio station on the way to work this morning at 6 to discover they have already gone into 24/7 X-mas carols.

They do this every year, but just a couple of years ago it was after Thanksgiving.

Today is the 7th of November! One week from Halloween and weeks from Thanksgiving.

I can't do 24/7 Christmas at any point, but this early is just sickening.

I also think they have to lose ratings. I can;t be the only one who will now avoid them for the next several weeks.

I think it all boils down to there is little money to be made on Thanksgiving except for food so its right to Christmas earlier and earlier.

 

[PennLady]

This isn't a writing related thread, just something that drives me nuts.

I turned on my favorite radio station on the way to work this morning at 6 to discover they have already gone into 24/7 X-mas carols.

They do this every year, but just a couple of years ago it was after Thanksgiving.

Today is the 7th of November! One week from Halloween and weeks from Thanksgiving.

I can't do 24/7 Christmas at any point, but this early is just sickening.

I also think they have to lose ratings. I can;t be the only one who will now avoid them for the next several weeks.

I think it all boils down to there is little money to be made on Thanksgiving except for food so its right to Christmas earlier and earlier.

Yeah, that's too early. Way too early. And the worst part is that probably every fifth song is "Feliz Navidad." (Nothing wrong with the song, per se, it's just overplayed.)

This is why I wrote my story "Christmas Creep" a year or two ago. Not a great title, as I was not referring to someone who was a creep, but to how Christmas stuff "creeps" up earlier and earlier every year. I was seeing Christmas decorations in stores before Halloween.

 

[lovecraft68]

Yes that one and a million versions of white Christmas. Even the more "rock" or modern songs like Springsteen's Santa claus is coming to town is beat to death by the end of the first week.

For me The Friday after Thanks giving kicks off the season. Black Friday, almost the start of December etc...etc...

making it more out of place was the fact today was very warm here as well, it hit the mid sixties at least at one point.

 

[SecondCircle]

Yeah, that's too early. Way too early. And the worst part is that probably every fifth song is "Feliz Navidad." (Nothing wrong with the song, per se, it's just overplayed.)

This is why I wrote my story "Christmas Creep" a year or two ago. Not a great title, as I was not referring to someone who was a creep, but to how Christmas stuff "creeps" up earlier and earlier every year. I was seeing Christmas decorations in stores before Halloween.

Yeah, I don't wanna be a Scrooge or anything but I hate the Xmas Monster swallowing up more and more of the calender. (Feliz Navidad, ugh, yuck).

I understand why it happens, or one reason anyway. Everyone that I know starts Xmas shopping really early, like right after Halloween, to help with the ridiculous cost of the season. My wife and I actually save throughout the year for the holiday, and she is even proactive about keeping people in mind for gifts all year. Not because we love Xmas. Because we hate becoming broke idiots in December. And we do this to help with the expense. We absolutely do not start hanging decorations and crap until after Turkey day is over.

I think because people shop a little earlier like this, you see more and more Xmas stuff. Kind of annoying.

But I HATE when I'm getting geared up for Halloween, and walk into a store to find more Xmas stuff than Halloween. Yeah, Xmas is more popular, but I still think it can wait its fucking turn. Thanksgiving is now just the day before Black Friday to a lot of people. Christmas Carols? December only in my opinion.

I uh... I kinda hate Xmas. Not the season. That's all happy and cozy with me. But I think growing up with a BDay right near Jesus's kinda screwed me as a kid and scarred me.

 

[patientlee]

I have been very successful at keeping Christmas out of my life until Thanksgiving for the last couple of years, but it's work.

I don't go shopping. I listen to Octane on Sirius instead of local stations. I only watch TiVo'd shows, so I fast forward through the commercials. I think that's the secret to my success.

Feliz Navidad. If only my students could say the words I'm teaching them as well as they can sing that one off key...

 

[patientlee]

I uh... I kinda hate Xmas. Not the season. That's all happy and cozy with me. But I think growing up with a BDay right near Jesus's kinda screwed me as a kid and scarred me.

I got married 4 days before Christmas. My mother still hasn't forgiven me for that 17 years later.

 

[annanova]

No, it's definitely not just you, lovecraft. I can't stand turning on the radio, or going into a store, and being inundated with Christmas at Halloween either. And it's worse in Canada!! They have Thanksgiving in early October, so I can't even complain about putting Christmas off until after Thanksgiving, because they already did!

I've just gotten into the habit of keeping my own music in the car so that I can avoid the carols until I'm ready for them.

SecondCircle, I'll do the same thing when it comes to shopping. I've got little hiding spots all over the house (and at Mom's!) to put things that I've found in response to thinking, "Oh, that would be perfect for the fella!" He sucks at it because he tends to find something he thinks would be a good gift, then comes home and gives it to me.

I also know what you mean about birthdays at the holidays. My brother's b-day is also right around Christmas, but Mom was great about it and kept his b-day separate. There was never any leftover Christmas wrap used on his presents.

 

[SecondCircle]

I got married 4 days before Christmas. My mother still hasn't forgiven me for that 17 years later.

At least Hubby can't forget, I guess. : )

 

[soflabbwlvr]

I read the column of a writer on ESPN who discusses this at length at this time of the year. He refers to it as part of his "unified theory of creep." Christmas season extending into August is part of it, but it also includes new car model years starting earlier and earlier, magazine issues marked a month or more earlier, etc.

 

[mynameisben]

Happy New Year, everybody!

 

[lovecraft68]

Happy New Year, everybody!

New years is fine. We get to get drunk and best part is there are no New years songs to play over and over again.

 

[JKendallDane]

Give them a few more years and we will be seeing July 4th celebrations done primarily with red and green fireworks and a giant Santa sleigh shooting across the sky as the finale.

 

[lovecraft68]

Give them a few more years and we will be seeing July 4th celebrations done primarily with red and green fireworks and a giant Santa sleigh shooting across the sky as the finale.

And we'll have Cyber Monday, Black Friday, Retail Tuesday, Blow out Wednesday, half priced Thursday etc....

 

[R. Richard]

As some of you know, I now live in Belize. There are some disadvantages to living in Belize, but not having to listen to "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer" is NOT one of them.

 

[lovecraft68]

As some of you know, I now live in Belize. There are some disadvantages to living in Belize, but not having to listen to "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer" is NOT one of them.

Or Dominick the Donkey?

Turning green with Envy

 

[drteetho]

I read the column of a writer on ESPN who discusses this at length at this time of the year. He refers to it as part of his "unified theory of creep." Christmas season extending into August is part of it, but it also includes new car model years starting earlier and earlier, magazine issues marked a month or more earlier, etc.

I was just about to mention this.

"Tuesday Morning Quarterback" is the name of the column, and it's written by Gregg Easterbrook. I really enjoy reading it. He can be on the wordy side but it's an interesting mix of politics, science, current events and a contrarian's take on football and the NFL. He's a pretty smart guy.

 

[Setanta84]

We're five years into a "jobless recovery," every Christmas since 2007 has been weak for retailers, and the economy is once again worsening to the point that even the very massaged official labor statistics are looking gradually worse. I think this kind of thing is a product of all that--they're trying to program consumers to go into Christmas shopping mode earlier so the consumer base has a longer amount of time to spread the wealth they have around.

 

[lovecraft68]

We're five years into a "jobless recovery," every Christmas since 2007 has been weak for retailers, and the economy is once again worsening to the point that even the very massaged official labor statistics are looking gradually worse. I think this kind of thing is a product of all that--they're trying to program consumers to go into Christmas shopping mode earlier so the consumer base has a longer amount of time to spread the wealth they have around.

Amazing! Some one else who can come out and say the economy still sucks!

My company makes point of purchase displays for major electronics companies. These last couple of months were our bust season as everything needs to be built and shipped ahead for all the new products and sales.

5th straight year we've done less business.

And next year anyone with a job will be paying for obamacare so no hope in 2014 either.

 

[patientlee]

Or Dominick the Donkey?

Turning green with Envy

Dominick the Donkey is my last alarm in the morning. If that doesn't get me out of bed, nothing will. God I hate that song.

 

[patientlee]

To celebrate the season, I just read Under the Mistle-Toe. I wish I didn't hate feet so much. It was a good story though. (I don't even like my own feet! )

 

[Setanta84]

Amazing! Some one else who can come out and say the economy still sucks!

My company makes point of purchase displays for major electronics companies. These last couple of months were our bust season as everything needs to be built and shipped ahead for all the new products and sales.

5th straight year we've done less business.

And next year anyone with a job will be paying for obamacare so no hope in 2014 either.

Yeah, the "Affordable Care Act" is in no way actually affordable and its implementation on the state level in MA suggests it doesn't really have any meaningful impact on overall health outcomes either--mainly because it does nothing to actually control costs or improve care--it's just a regressive tax that is meant to juice volume for the insurance industry. Regressive taxes in the middle of a demand crisis are not great.

We should have gone for something like Medicare for All and a federal jobs program instead of the tax cut-heavy "stimulus." (Fun fact: Tax cuts put almost no money back into the economy, because the kind of person who benefits from them tends to pocket the extra cash and sit on it.) Both of those would have actually been multipliers of demand.

 

[StrangeLife]

Making any hint to something Christmassy before December 1st ought to be a felony.... no a capital offence.

 

[SamScribble]

I'm sure that the run up to Christmas used to start halfway though December. Or am I just getting old?

 

[PennLady]

To celebrate the season, I just read Under the Mistle-Toe. I wish I didn't hate feet so much. It was a good story though. (I don't even like my own feet! )

LOL You could try my "Christmas Creep." I tried to have a little fun with the ridiculous advancement of the seasonal stuff. And no feet. Well, feet are implied, I suppose, just not mentioned specifically.

 

[Bramblethorn]

This isn't a writing related thread, just something that drives me nuts.

I turned on my favorite radio station on the way to work this morning at 6 to discover they have already gone into 24/7 X-mas carols.

I have a copy of the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society Christmas Album. All the standard carols with Mythos lyrics. It works as a sort of vaccination: even when I have to go into a mall and they're playing Feliz sodding Navidad, I can mentally substitute the modified version.

"On his hands he's got orifices
On his hands he's got orifices
On his hands he's got orifices
And he hasn't got a head!"

The singing's quite good, too.