Do Retailers Begin Promoting Christmas Too Early?

I don't know about you, but when I was a kid it was unheard of to see even the slightest hint of Christmas until after Thanksgiving. In today's world, the 'Christmas Creep', a term used to describe how retailers keep bumping up the start of Christmas promotions each year, gets earlier and earlier.

This year, about 15-percent of the top retailers began their Christmas e-mail campaigns on September 6th. We have barely started talking about Halloween by September 6th, let alone Christmas - and what ever happened to celebrating Thanksgiving.

Last year, most of the online campaigns began in October, but this year most are already underway. You can actually start seeing 'Christmas stuff' on the floor in places like Wal-Mart sometime in July, and by late September and early October, it seems like that's all you see, doesn't it?

Retailers will tell you that most people are receptive to this, but most of the people I know get pretty annoyed at how early the 'Christmas season' seems to start. It should be a progression so we can enjoy each of the Holidays equally. Most people like to focus on Halloween, then gear up for Thanksgiving, with some not really getting into the Christmas spirit until the day after Thanksgiving.

I was in one store with my boys over the weekend and they wanted to look at Halloween stuff, which we finally found behind the Christmas stuff... really? Is it just me, or does it just feel wrong to 'start' Christmas so early?

[NBC News]