Christmas is here earlier every year

Jim Speiss does some shopping in the Christmas section at Target. Staff photo by Haley Hughes.

Christmas is more than one month away, but the holiday appeared to arrive in stores and on the airwaves before Halloween, and some say it seems to come earlier and earlier every year.

Christmas displays are up in stores and have been for weeks. Christmas spots frequently pervade TV commercial breaks, and downtown Aiken retailers have begun creating holiday window displays.

Retail giant Walmart released its Black Friday circular this week, much earlier than in previous years. Walmart typically doesn’t release its highly-anticipated doorbuster deals until the week of Thanksgiving.

Target, Best Buy and other stores have also released previews of their Black Friday deals. Many have announced they will open at midnight on Black Friday to accommodate the shopping rush. Not to be outdone, Walmart will open at 10 p.m. Thanksgiving night.

“Our customers told us they would rather stay up late to shop than get up early, so we’re going to hold special events on Thanksgiving and Black Friday,” Duncan Mac Naughton, Wal-Mart’s chief merchandising officer, U.S., said in a statement.

Aiken Target Store Team Leader LeeAnn Perez said everything Christmas is put out immediately following Halloween; many guests have already been looking for it.

USC Aiken Senior Instructor of Communications Peggy Elliott suspects the reason Christmas appears to come earlier and earlier each year is tied to the popularity of and booming business at Halloween.

The National Retail Federation (NRF) estimated seven in 10 Americans planned to celebrate Halloween, the most in the federation’s nine-year survey history. Total Halloween spending was expected to reach $6.86 billion.

“Halloween has become such a big, big event,” Elliott said.

She asserts consumers begin to think in September about Halloween costumes and candy and then, quickly following Oct. 31, Christmas is on the brain.

“It’s as if we’re planning four to six months in advance. Thanksgiving just winds up being a meal and some football games,” she said. “People are ready to pounce on Black Friday. Few things are saved for the few weeks before Christmas.”

Aiken’s Hobby Lobby begins to unveil its Christmas merchandise in the summer months. Christmas trees arrive at the store in April and make it to the sales floor in May.

The trend always receives mixed reviews, said store manager Jeff Walber. “Some customers think you’re trying to push it too early.” But some customers appreciate it as they can begin to plan and gather items for their holiday crafts early.

“We offer items for $40, and you can make a wreath that you might spend $80 on at another store,” Walber said.

Currently, 80 to 85 percent of the Whiskey Road store’s shelves carry Christmas merchandise, said Walber. The Monday before Thanksgiving, the store will go full throttle Christmas.

Nordstrom has plainly refused to decorate its stores until after Thanksgiving. Signs in Nordstrom’s across the country declare the store won’t begin “decking its halls” until after Thanksgiving. “Why? Well, we just like the idea of celebrating one holiday at a time,” the signs read.

The NRF anticipates the holiday season will be “average” with a modest increase in spending of only 2.8 percent to $456 billion. Last year, spending increased 5.2 percent over the previous year.

Last year, 88.3 WAFJ played Christmas music for an entire day in July. The radio station hoped to take listeners’ minds off the triple-digit heat wave and inspire people with its core message of celebrating Christ all year long.

“People loved it. It was not a statement about Christmas starting early,” said station general manager Steve Swanson. “Personally, it’s tough for him to see Christmas start early, especially when it seems to push Thanksgiving to the wayside. It’s retail driven probably. One store wants to get the edge on the store next door or one website over another. But, we need to take time to say, ‘Thank you.’”

WAFJ is offering its listeners exactly that. People can call (877) 447-7234 and share what they’re thankful for. The messages will be played on air.

A White Christmas?

Last year, Aiken received a dusting of snow on Dec. 26, the day after Christmas. According to The Old Farmer’s Almanac, South Carolina’s upstate will see periods of rain and snow in the week before Christmas and rain in the southern part of the state. There will be periods of rain the week of Christmas. Aiken County has a 30 to 40 percent chance of snow every year, according to the state Climatology Office.