Christmas BEFORE Halloween? Seriously?

Has this world gone insane? It's bad enough when people have to deal with the holiday rush from the day after Thanksgiving until midnight Christmas Eve, but I began seeing decorations last week alongside the Halloween stuff! The TV stations are already running holiday commercials such as Christmas lay-a-way at Walmart and K-Mart

I don’t want to see anything even remotely related to Christmas until maybe mid-November. Sure, I’ve always been known as a Mrs. Scrooge in the sense that I just don’t like the holiday, but I’m getting better about it. Mellowing out. Since moving into this new house, we were able to have room for a real tree and to put up decorations. I enjoyed last year’s Christmas for the first time since I was a kid.

But for crying out loud, retailers need to let shoppers get over the candy-induced hangover of Halloween before slapping them in the face with Christmas lay-a-way ads and more.

My biggest peeves with Christmas boils down to three things.

A) Christmas should be about caring for one another and not having to buy or make a damn present for everyone from your significant other to Aunt Gertrude’s gerbil.
B) People turn into jackasses during the holiday season. It irks me to no end. Why? Refer to point A.
C) And lastly, I hate, hate, hate going out into the herd of jackasses. Why? Refer to point B.

Granted not everyone turns into raving lunatics, but it sure seems like most do. And talk about rude! Christmas time makes food stamp and SSI day at Walmart look like a church picnic.

As a result, most of my Christmas shopping is done online. And I make a lot of my gifts too. This year, however, there will be lots of goodie boxes full of fudge—chocolate, pb, cherry, spiced, mint, banana, etc.—cookies, fudgie cakes and melt-in-mouth holiday treats. With all the writing and deadlines I’ve had this year, no crocheted hats, blankets, etc. will be wrapped up. (sigh) I’ve missed that because it helps calm me when I’m stressed.

Anyway, I don’t want to see commercials about a sale on green-and-red Christmas cookies at Kroger’s because by the time I’d fight my way through the riots there’d be nothing left ‘cept some colored sugar crystals. And I don’t give a rat’s ass about a sale on dolls that poop their pants in Technicolor brilliance at Walmart. With this economy no one can afford to buy much anyway. It’s all some folks can do to keep food on the table and gas in their vehicles, yanno?

Besides, if someone wants such a doll, I can loan ‘em my grandson after he’s ate too many fruit snacks. BOOM! Now *that’s* a brilliant, Technicolor diapie.

Oh, here’s another thing that irks me about too-soon Christmas displays and ads: wrapping paper. What’s the point of even buying the damn stuff? If you even breathe on a sheet of it there’s a gaping hole staring back at you—and you pay upwards of $8 to $10 a roll for the good stuff! The catch? Less paper because it’s the stuff that actually wraps something.

“Here, honey. Take this brown shipping paper and crayons and doodle Christmas stuff. Mommy needs some wrapping paper.”

Gah.

No, keep the Christmas stuff out of my sight unto mid-November. Oh, and here’s a suggestion I should stuff in every store’s suggestion box: don’t start playing Bing Crosby’s White Christmas until after Thanksgiving. Hearing it while I’m buying last-minute Halloween candy creates nervous ticks that are often irreversible.

On another note, visit me over at Ramblings of A Chaotic Mind. Here’s the link http://bit.ly/rOJK6T and make sure you scroll all the way to the bottom so you don't miss the entire post.