On Christmas Decorations

Early Christmas decorations make me irrationally angry. There’s no good reason that they should — I mean really, who cares? — but they do.

In the US, they have their retail promotional cycle sorted out:

October is all build up for Halloween

November is all build up to thanksgiving and the insane frenzy that is Black Friday

December is devoted to Christmas.

This seems about right to me – it’s only a couple of weeks away so once December 1 rolls around by all means go big on Santa. Get yourself a tree, some tinsel, some impossible to untangle fairy lights and go bananas. If you’re really keen then even throw in a nativity scene (though a story about a middle-eastern couple trying to find a safe place to stay will make some people nervous).

In countries that don’t really do Halloween or Thanksgiving though, the retail decoration cycle is a trainwreck and Christmas now takes up a solid three months. For a business, what is the possible benefit of having the Christmas decorations up in October? Does it actually increase sales? Barely anyone in Singapore is even Christian and yet there have been enormous plastic trees all over the place for months…

Don’t get me wrong, I love Christmas itself – the time with family, the food, the presents, the Boxing Day test, the inevitable arguments over hyper-competitive board games – all of it. Despite the fact that I’m far from religious, it’s hands down the best time of the year.

I just hate the premature decorations.

Let me know what you think — is it every appropriate to have Christmas decorations outside the month of December?

Jez