My parents took me tonight to pick out my birthday present — new clothes! YAY! However, while shopping, it was impossible to ignore all the Christmas music coming through the speakers. It was off-putting to say the least. A friend of mine that works in retail reported last night that in her store, every other song is now Christmas music. By the time December 25th arrives, I fear she might find a way to short-out the sound system in her store.
I can’t say I blame her.
See, I like Thanksgiving. A lot. But with everyone (read: retail) in such a hurry to get to Christmas, it feels like the holiday gets lost. Halloween is huge, then Christmas is huge, but Thanksgiving… well, it’s practically ignored. It’s such an important holiday — it’s a time to take a moment and count your blessings — yet instead, the focus is on buying stuff. Buy, buy, buy! Spend! Spend! spend! Yes, its all about giving gifts to our loved ones, which is not a BAD thing, but I don’t think burying the importance of Thanksgiving is good either.
It wasn’t even Halloween yet, and Target already had half their seasonal section selling Christmas decorations. I wasn’t happy about that, but it was also all to the back of the store and it wasn’t the focus. Tonight, every store we went into had Christmas decorations up, and Bing Crosby singing “White Christmas.”
The sad thing is that I found myself singing along! I felt I should be shot myself for being dragged into that. Grrrr… Evil retail mind washing. I love Christmas music, but not in early November. Let me enjoy Fall and Thanksgiving, please, first.
Thank you.
Amen, sister! I really loved Thanksgiving before I started working retail (and really, the whole retail thing has killed all holidays for me, they’re just a horrible hassle now), but now it gets drowned in Christmas, and I have to worry about surviving Black Friday the next day. I can hardly enjoy my pumpkin pie, because I am dreading going to work the next day. No one should be involuntarily dragged into that crap.
I always feel like pulling a step stool into the middle of the store and reciting excerpts from A Charlie Brown Christmas. lol
I would pay to see you do that. ;)
Y’know, I hate that no one thinks of that. It’s all about “I want to shop” but no one takes a moment to think of the people working. They deserve a holiday, too, right? :( Hang in there, girl. It’ll be over in no time, I am sure.
I totally understand this!!! I was just talking to Jason about this before Halloween, lamenting the fact that … “Christmas was the next holiday” and what had happened to Thanksgiving?? It has slipped through the fingers of the retail giants. sigh…
I hear you… SO TRUE. And I think its gotten worse the last few years, with this year taking it to a whole new level. I really don’t remember having Christmas crammed down our throats this hard in the past. I don’t want to hate the holiday before it gets here!
You are right Christmas is crammed down our throats these days and mostly because our economy is in sad shape. Hoping to sell more to spur the economy isn’t helping in my book. There will be plenty who might not even be able to afford the best deals and then there are those who just said they are going to go back to impulsive spending either. Yes, and lets all remember to make Thanksgiving the special day it is. I for one plan to with all my heart and I will keep reminding myself of all I have to be thankful for!
Thanksgiving will definitely be special, no matter how we spend it. I am thankful every day, but it’s so nice to have a whole day to be thankful. I won’t let Christmas overshine it! Refuse to let that happen!