As I was shopping for the headpiece for my cliché alien Halloween costume, I realized something. London barely recognizes that Halloween is a thing. In America, little costume shops pop up and people start planning their outfits well in advance. I’m not saying that no one does that here, but it was definitely hard to find the Halloween spirit. I spent two hours searching the biggest mall for a pair of basic antennas, yet couldn’t find the basic costume piece that would be in tons of stores in America. England’s lack of Halloween excitement is probably because Londoners’ spirit is all tied up for Christmas.
What? Isn’t it a little early, London? I have been noticing the small signs around the city for a couple weeks now. Shops are selling ugly (a.k.a. beautiful) Christmas sweaters, Regent Street has its Christmas lights up and Liberty department store has the top floor dedicated to an awesome ornament shop.
If you don’t believe me that the holidays are coming faster each year, let’s look at the facts. The Royal Statistical Society did a study where they tracked the use of Christmas words like “Santa” and “elf” to determine when people start thinking about the holiday. According to the study, Christmas started on Nov. 11 in 2007. In 2013, it started on Aug. 25. That’s around when we start school, so, yeah, it’s a little early. In that same year, Kmart launched its Christmas ads 105 days before Dec. 25. Kmart later gained the term “Christmas Creep,” even though they had the right idea. Apparently, 12 percent of consumers start getting their Christmas presents before September and 20 percent start in October. Considering Christmas accounts for around $580 billion in sales, Kmart just wanted a good enough chunk of that by starting early. You know what they say: “The early bird gets the worm.”
Starting early is a good move economically for companies and consumers. Spreading out your holiday shopping can lessen the strain of all-out holiday shopping trip near Christmas while, for companies, shopping early “lessens the need for overtime wages and for hiring a temporary workforce.” Since early October is when people start to shop for Christmas, record labels choose to release Christmas albums at this time as well. In 2014, Idina Menzel’s Christmas album, “Holiday Wishes,” was released on Oct. 14. Years before, in 2011, Michael Buble’s Christmas album was released on Oct. 24 and it had more than 3 million in sales by the end of 2012. To be fair, this could have very well been because he’s Michael Buble. Who doesn’t love that guy? Point is that people don’t mind buying Christmas stuff well before Halloween. Soon enough, we’ll be Christmas shopping while we’re getting fireworks for July Fourth.
I think it says something about us if we are accepting Christmas earlier each year. We just want to have that Christmas spirit for as long and as fast as we can. I get that. It really is the best time of the year and that’s coming from someone who doesn’t even celebrate the holiday. The thing about it coming sooner each year is that soon enough, the greatest time of the year will be the greatest half of the year and so on. I hate to be the Grinch, but spreading the holiday spirit out for that long dilutes how great it is to begin with.
