Yay! It’s October, boys and girls, and you know what that means?
That’s right! In three short months, Santa will be here! Have you started your Christmas list? What’s that? You don’t even have your Halloween costume? Never fear, kiddies. You’ll find all kinds of super-heroes, ghouls and Grim Reapers, uh, just behind the Nativity scenes on aisle 12.
Whatever happened to basking in the glory of autumn?
Way back in the 1970’s, when I was just a lass, Halloween was given its just dues in the world of retailing. Candy corn and plastic pumpkins were on supermarket shelves October 1st, and we had the entire month to peruse the costumes and taste-test the chocolates or the carmel apples that Mom used to give out. The anticipation of the holiday was encouraged by ads in newspapers (remember those?) and was punctuated by the changing of seasons and the first falling leaves.
Today, in our fast-forward-gotta-see-it-touch-it-have-it-buy-it culture, big-box stores ply us with black cats and witchy chachkas just after we’ve had our first official barbeque. (Put down the flag and pick up the axe, please.) Frankly, I’m disgusted by it, but I know this insidious change in the way we live and shop has been building for decades. Because, unfortunately, “living” and “shopping” have become synonyms for the American public. Today’s economic meltdown had its roots in our buy-now-pay-later mentality, which, of course, was encouraged by putting Santa and his reindeer on display in a store near you before Labor Day.
Can’t we just take the holidays as they come? Can’t we just celebrate and revel in the changing of the leaves, the passing of time, and the signposts of the season?
Do we really need to buy ornaments for the tree before we’ve even bought the Thanksgiving turkey? The retailers think we should.
But I say, “Boo!!!”
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