Tonight, I went driving around to see if there were any more local displays I've missed. It seems like there are fewer people who have done anything significant than last year, but one thing I did see... 4 houses with Christmas lights up and *ON*! Why would anyone have their Christmas lights turned on this early? What is wrong with these people?
What is Wrong With People?
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I used to love Christmas. It's people like that, who start it waaaay too early, that put me off it. There's no excitement about it now as by the time December comes, I'm sick of seeing Christmas stuff. In my opinion, Christmas shouldn't be in the shops until after Halloween (or 5th. November, UK Bonfire night) Commercial Christmas has ruined the magic of Christmas and they're are starting earlier every year! Each too their own but get things in order people! Christmas is for 1st.December onwards! ?
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I hate to say that this is more about conservative beliefs pushing back against what is felt to be an insult to their religion. I dont want this to be a political discussion so I will stop there...
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In Rochester NY I see the opposite. More and more people decorating and more going over the top. I LOVE IT! Keep it up everyone!
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I've been driving around looking, and I've seen a lot of people scale back, but a lot of people doing something when they haven't before as well. I'm not talking full yard haunts or anything, but hey, they suddenly have a few decorations on the doors/windows. cool!
I don't do 'competitions' or anything for any holiday, but we have a really fun game going with one of our neighbors. They are THE CHRISTMAS HOUSE of the neighborhood, much like we are the Halloween house.
For the last five years, they set their lights up in October. They normally don't light them till thanksgiving, but they are sure putting them up and testing them in October.
The great thing, though is they just RUN WITH IT for Halloween.
Full winter wonderland setup in the yard, lights on, Christmas music going. Answer the door as santa/mrs clause. Hand out candy canes.
Towards the end of the night, they'll come over to our place Christmas caroling as the full house of santa and the elves.
Meanwhile, we leave our Halloween decorations out, wrap them in Christmas lights, and have begun to go trick or treat at their house Christmas eve.
I don't do 'competitions' or anything for any holiday, but we have a really fun game going with one of our neighbors. They are THE CHRISTMAS HOUSE of the neighborhood, much like we are the Halloween house.
For the last five years, they set their lights up in October. They normally don't light them till thanksgiving, but they are sure putting them up and testing them in October.
The great thing, though is they just RUN WITH IT for Halloween.
Full winter wonderland setup in the yard, lights on, Christmas music going. Answer the door as santa/mrs clause. Hand out candy canes.
Towards the end of the night, they'll come over to our place Christmas caroling as the full house of santa and the elves.
Meanwhile, we leave our Halloween decorations out, wrap them in Christmas lights, and have begun to go trick or treat at their house Christmas eve.
I agree! I understand putting up lights early (it would be hazardous to wait until December where I live) but turning them on? As for stocking Christmas décor at the same time as Halloween - ridiculous! And don't get me started on the t.v. commercials and Christmas music in the stores playing in November. Sheesh!
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If you're going to do Christmas for Halloween THIS is how you do it! I always say that Halloween is the creative holiday and you can do whatever theme you actually want. If people want to do Christmas then they really have to commit to it like these people.
Otherwise... WTF is wrong with people? It's bad enough that they already get 2.5 months for their holiday (Nov to mid-Jan). At least let the rest of us have Halloween and October.
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i love this so much.
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I noticed my local Home Depot had Christmas trees and decorations in the store a few weeks ago... like Early October -- they still had their Halloween stuff, but scrunched into a pathetic 2 isles of the store, almost hidden whereas the Christmas stuff was spread way out front and prominent when you walked in... and that's been going on now for 10+ years if my memory serves me correctly. At this point I'm no longer shocked as I am disappointed, why!? Why do they do that? My thoughts is that I think that Halloween is considered a short-lived event whereas Christmas is a "season" . . . and I guess there's more money in Christmas.
So, unfortunately for us haunters, I'm sure we'd like it the other way around. Well, there's still a few of us around that like Halloween, let's keep the spirit alive!
So, unfortunately for us haunters, I'm sure we'd like it the other way around. Well, there's still a few of us around that like Halloween, let's keep the spirit alive!
Except they did. There are a couple of houses that keep their lights up all year long, just not those. And most of them have the good sense not to turn the lights on until after Thanksgiving.
Halloween is completely gone at Lowes. Haven't walked into Home Depot lately, but at Lowes, it's all gone and replaced with Christmas.
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i used to think christmas creep started because of how stores use seasonal sections, but that doesn't make much sense to me anymore. the nearest thing to halloween is end of summer/labor day stuff, which still leaves close to 2 months for halloween in seasonal. that's comparable to christmas--really nothing else after halloween, so get christmas out on november 1, that's still the same roughly 2 months that halloween gets.
now i think it's more to do with stores having more space. take our wal-mart, for instance, halloween doesn't get the seasonal section until right after labor day, but around that same time they're clearing all the summer stuff from the outdoor section. there's nothing else really to put there, so halloween goes up just shortly after halloween does.
tl;dr--stores are going to use their space for something, and the timing works out where christmas gets some space starting soon after the end of summer.
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I completely understand setting up in October for Christmas, especially in places where the weather turns cold quickly, but I'd prefer they wait until, at the very least, the week of Thanksgiving to turn it all on. But I can't make people do that.
So far I haven't seen early Christmas outdoor stuff around here. But my aunt who lives up the street has her inflatable Thanksgiving turkey up with her little witch & pumpkin. My uncle said "Why not? I'm going to have to put it up in a few weeks so why not?"
As someone else said, Christmas gets most of November & all of December, Halloween barely gets all of October any more, it would be nice if the stores recognized this but for them it's all about the $$$. Since the Christmas stuff is out now if you don't get those lights or that ornament it won't be there when you want it, thus perpetuating the stores putting out stuff early.
But it's the same for us & our Halloween stuff. If you see it in August you better buy it because it won't be there come October 1 & there's plenty of folks grumbling about Halloween being in the stores in August.
So far I haven't seen early Christmas outdoor stuff around here. But my aunt who lives up the street has her inflatable Thanksgiving turkey up with her little witch & pumpkin. My uncle said "Why not? I'm going to have to put it up in a few weeks so why not?"
As someone else said, Christmas gets most of November & all of December, Halloween barely gets all of October any more, it would be nice if the stores recognized this but for them it's all about the $$$. Since the Christmas stuff is out now if you don't get those lights or that ornament it won't be there when you want it, thus perpetuating the stores putting out stuff early.
But it's the same for us & our Halloween stuff. If you see it in August you better buy it because it won't be there come October 1 & there's plenty of folks grumbling about Halloween being in the stores in August.
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I used to crab every year that I had to help set up the Christmas stuff in my store. It was a race to reset all of the racking, run all of the electrical, and put out thousands of pieces by the deadline set by corporate. But the fact remains that there are thousands of people asking for and buying this stuff so of course stores are going to push it earlier and earlier, because if they wait they might miss millions of dollars in sales and profits. Christmas still makes the most money of the holidays and Halloween just isn't profitable enough to take valuable selling space/time away from Christmas.
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I've gone all out for Halloween for 20+ years...and for those years I would make 250 treat bags and still would run out of candy...last year only about 100 of those bags were gone by the end of the night...and this year I expect even less...so sad that even the stores are selling less decorating items than they have for years!!!
If anything, I'd bet Christians celebrate Halloween more than anyone else. It's just a big family night for them. It's just a tiny fraction of like Adventists and Jehovah's Witnesses that are against it. Mormons go for it huge, and they're about as conservative as it gets.
Okay... that's just wonderful. I would love to have neighbors who were into anything so much that they went all out. And since they're letting the kids trick or treat and they're doing it in costume, I've not got no complaints. (Although I would probably make them a nice looking tombstone with snow and icicles on it saying Krampus. hahaha.)
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Here I was all set to suggest you go zombie caroling that house and I find out UnOrthodOx has already next leveled it! Then again, we may or may not have decked out our zombies with a Santa suit and the rest with elf hats even if I never got around to chewing up the ears like I really wanted to. 
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