I believe Halloween is responsible for every holiday season
shifting earlier into the year
Halloween? It's not even that much of a holiday, unless you're a college-aged girl with questionable morals. I don't see how this could be the ringleader of holiday-based consumerism.
It seems innocuous enough, doesn't it? But when you think about the rampant productization that goes along with just about every holiday now, the truth is hard to deny. We see the "Holiday Seasons" all around us. It happens, and it annoys most of us. The "Seasons" get earlier every year. Valentines day crap starts up on January 2nd, Feb 15th brings Easter, followed immediately by 4th of July preparations. On July 5th, we get the onslaught of Back to School and Labor Day stuff so that September can be reserved for the Halloween/Thanksgiving/Christmas trifecta. Seriously...it's September 16th, and I've seen displays of Christmas decorations in more than one store already. That's not funny.
So, when you consider why all of these holidays exist in the first place, (That being so people will buy stuff...the historical and religious aspects of holidays being long forgotten) really the only holiday that stands to make more of a profit by arriving earlier is Halloween. Christmas is the biggest consumerist holiday right now, and there is always a push to buy bigger and more extravagant gifts every year (Lexus, anyone?). But, if you're going to buy Christmas gifts for people, it doesn't much matter when you buy them. If you get your shopping done early, you have your gifts, and you're probably content with that...if not downright elated that you can avoid the late-season rush to the malls. Nobody finishes their shopping early, gets bored and rich, and decides they need to go out shopping some more in the middle of winter.
Same thing goes with the other blatantly consumerist holidays. There are only so many Valentine's Day candies and jewellery pieces you can buy in one year, only so many hamburgers and fireworks for 4th of July, only so many turkeys you need for Thanksgiving. So it doesn't matter at all when the "Holiday Season" starts, the amount of crap you buy for it remains the same. Except for one.
Again, it's mid-September, and while Christmas is just making its way into stores, Halloween items have been taking up shelf space for about a month now. Halloween isn't for another month and a half. What is Halloween stuff? Sure, there's some space devoted to cheap plastic kids' costumes and the occasional paper decoration...but 83% of the supply needed for Halloween consists of one thing...candy. So why should stores sell Halloween candy early? Because you'll eat it all long before October 31st arrives, and then you'll have to go out and buy more. This is the only holiday where this happens. You don't eat your Thanksgiving turkey at the end of October and have to run out and buy another Mid-November. You don't shoot off your fireworks in June, or open your Christmas presents the day after Thanksgiving. The only holiday that exhausts its supply of preparations early is Halloween. Therefore, I have little choice but to conclude that Halloween is responsible for shifting all of the holidays dramatically forward on the calendar. So, when you start hearing Jingle Bells in the next couple of weeks, you can thank all the ghosts and pumpkins for that.
Happy Holidays!
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