Mark Wright’s Blog

This morning as I went to get my morning coffee, I walked into a winter wonderland.  No folks, it was not snowing.  It was the amount of Christmas decorations already up.  The area in which I get my morning Starbucks is called The Market.  It is one of the new style shopping centers in which there are streets with boutique shops, restaurants and big block stores intermingled to make it look like the old downtown square areas of times past.  In the middle is a little park area.

The reason for my winter wonderland comment is that we are still two weeks away from Thanksgiving and already the Christmas decorations have been brought out.  There is a massive Christmas tree in the square and every store, light post or sign has some sort of Christmas decoration on it. 

Now I understand that these businesses are trying to get a jump on the holiday shopping season.  Considering this is probably going to be a pretty light year shopping due to the economy, I guess they are trying to get people into the spirit early.  Many of the stores already have big Christmas sale ads in their windows. 

I thought the general rule was that you didn’t put anything in regards to Christmas up until after Thanksgiving.  I have always been told that you don’t put up your Christmas lights on the house until after Thanksgiving and they have to be down before New Year’s Day.  I guess these rules don’t apply in commercial endeavors. 

I am looking forward to this Christmas more than in the past.  In my previous employment, Christmas was the most hectic time of the season.  We were under constant demand to get our products to our customers, many times on the same day.  By the end of the season, very few of us had a lot of Christmas cheer left. 

I was sad to see all of the Christmas stuff up on the street.  Heck even my morning Starbucks coffee cup had a Christmas motif on it.  There will little snowflakes even.  For some reason it doesn’t put me in the holiday spirit. 

I am not begrudging businesses for trying to get the jump on the holiday shopping season.  I hope they do well.  I just get worried that if things keep going, the Christmas decorations will be brought out after the Fourth of July.