Ho Ho Ho

I'm playing Christmas music.  It's November 6th, and I AM PLAYING CHRISTMAS MUSIC.

The main purpose is to get my fingers typing more than the Jack Daniels did.  But also, it's beautiful music.  It's cold here, there's snow in the forecast, and I like ham more than turkey.

Yes, there's another holiday shoved in there called Turkey Lurkey Day, aka Thanksgiving.  For alot of households, that means eating like a glutton while gathered with family or friends.  It also means, for many, injecting caffeine straight into an artery to stay awake for doorbuster sales and shopping frenzies into the wee hours of the following morning.

I am not a fan of Black Friday shopping.  I went once, a very long time ago, when Black Friday was still actually on Friday and just meant getting out of bed at 5:00am to shop.  Now, with stores fighting to open during dinner hours on Thanksgiving day, I just shake my head in disgust and move on.

I see alot of outrage and rants on social media over Christmas appearing in the stores, advertisements, TV programming, and various other places.  True to spirit of social media, people climb up on a soapbox to scream to the rooftops, but that's about as far as it goes.

I work in a store that has Christmas items for sale from mid-July to December.  MID-JULY.  Middle of summer, with plenty of holidays prior to the season of Ho Ho Ho, but I can tell you it has given me a new perspective on this whole too-early Christmas thing.

First of all, retailers are in business to make money.  Kind of a DUH moment there, but it obviously needs to be said with all this whining that is going on.  Every square inch of a retail space is potential dollars earned.  And no retailer (unless they're just craptastic at their job and are running the business into the ground) will EVER waste space on merchandise that does not sell.

Let me repeat that again to make it very clear and in much simpler terms.

No store will waste space on Christmas merchandise if it does not sell.

And even more simply put, if the consumer is not buying it, the retailer will not stock it.

This means, when you see Christmas merchandise on the shelves on November 1st, people are buying it.  I know this from years of experience.  Years of selling Christmas items in July, even more in August, an increase in September, and oodles of it by October.  Our Christmas merchandise sales don't slow down until December.  And with the little amount of space we have, and massive amounts of merchandise coming through our doors, we are in  business to maximize our turnover at a very fast pace.  We would not waste the space if it was not a fantastic seller.  No retailer would.

If "blame" is to be placed, blame the consumer who cannot resist buying a snowman in August.  Blame the Christmas shopper trying to get decorating purchases out of the way as soon as Trick or Treating is finished.  But don't blame the retailer for doing their job.  They are providing the supply to meet the demand. 

The same goes for Black Friday.  I really dislike the greed involved with Black Friday shopping for very personal reasons.  I have only had two (I think, no more than 3) Thanksgiving dinners with my immediate family in the last 20 years.  Let me just emphasize that.  (and we'll be generous and go with 3)  THREE DINNERS IN 20 YEARS.  Yes, there have been Thanksgiving dinners nearly every year, but there's been an absence felt nearly every year.  I have an older brother that works for a major retailer.  I'll be nice and not call out this major retailer by name, but let's just say that their disgusting lineup for tickets to the hottest electronic item to ever hit the earth has inched back by hours over the years, and now it's on Thanksgiving Day, with many people lining up before a turkey is even put in the oven.  And even though this brother (and there's only three of us, so it's not like we don't notice a sibling is gone) is in management for this major retailer, and would normally never be standing at a register, he works every damn Black Friday.  In recent history (thinking back the last 10 years), he has made it home for Thanksgiving dinner ONCE, and we might as well have jumped ahead a holiday and called it a damn Christmas miracle.  You would think we could just move the dinner to the weekend, but oh hell no, the greed may start on Thanksgiving, but it pulls a marathon into the weekend and he can't get a day off to save his life until after New Years.  Thank god this corporate pig closes on Christmas Day, or we would be celebrating all our winter holiday's with him sometime around Memorial Day (though they do a huge Memorial Day sale too, I'm sure).

However, as much as I dislike Black Friday, I understand that once again, retailers are meeting demand.  Last year was the first year we saw more retailers joining the Thanksgiving Day trend, and it didn't bomb as it should have.  With all the outcries, a person would expect such a strategy to be a dismal failure.

But no, sales were just as successful as prior years.  People still lined up, probably still had crumbs of homemade rolls on their shirts, and pumpkin pie smears on their cheeks, but dammit, give me that $5 crock pot that's going to end up at Goodwill by April goddammit.

Again, should we be blaming retailers here, or the idgit slapping down the cash at 6PM Thanksgiving Day with a full belly?

In addition, the appearance of Christmas in the stores, or Black Friday shopping, or Christmas carols playing on a radio really have no bearing on Thanksgiving.  If Thanksgiving is important to you, then seeing all this tinsel or hearing Silent Night will not take away that experience.  You are still free to decorate your house in pilgrims, cornucopias, and turkeys made out of construction paper traced around a child's hand.  You can still spend two days cooking, put on some stretchy pants, and relax to the sounds of snoring and a football game.  You can CHOOSE to not participate in the greed of consumers everywhere.  Not everyone will resist, and THAT is why you see what you see, and hear what you hear.

I will put up my Christmas decorations soon.  We started hosting Christmas Day in our home a couple years ago, and I have found that getting the decorating done early allows me to enjoy the holiday more.  Christmas is my favorite holiday, because it is magical for me.  I refuse to let it be a stressful time, and I alleviate that potential for stress by decorating before Thanksgiving, having shopping completed by December 1st, everything wrapped and ready by the middle of December, and nothing but cooking and baking to do the week before the holiday. 

This does not negate the importance of Thanksgiving to me.  It is still a family holiday.  I still look forward to gathering for a meal.  I adore spending time with my family, because they are the most important people in my life.  Making early preparations for the following holiday does not take away from that.  No matter how much Christmas anything is shoved down my throat prior to Turkey Lurkey Day, it is still a wonderful holiday filled with love, because I CHOOSE to make it that way.  The external factors of greed are just that...external.  My brother, who I miss sitting at that family dinner table, knows we love and want him there, but also knows his employer has not ruined our holiday.  Because his employer does not dictate the love and bonds of our family.  They can steal as much of his time as they can get their hands on, but they do not win.

So, the next time you're walking through the store, looking for a tube of Chapstick because those winter winds have already started, and you see that Christmas tree, you have a choice.  Shrug and move on, stop and enjoy, but for the sake of all that is holy, don't let it bring you down.  It really isn't THAT important in the grand scheme of things.

Buy some chocolate and enjoy.  After all, along with that Christmas tree, there's a better selection of chocolates in the stores too.