November's Flood Gates Open For Christmas
Monday, 2 November 2009 01:54![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dr_phil_physicsIt's November Now
Another successful transition (finally) to Standard Time from Daylight Saving Time. As for Halloween, we didn't get any treat-or-treaters again this year. Mrs. Dr. Phil figures that the pine trees have grown too high to see our lights on easily from the road. Plus we're the weird neighbors that don't mow their lawn.
I thought we'd get one set of customers, as I saw headlights drive up. But it was just Mrs. Dr. Phil pulling the Bravada back into the garage and shutting us down for the year. Ah well. Which brings me to...
It's Going To Be A Long Xmas Season
Today's Sunday paper was chock full of Christmas ads. The Meijer's insert had red ornament graphics with all the prices. The Best Buy insert had festive red bows on everything, including a page 1 HP complete system with a Mini, desktop, laptop and WiFi system for like $1199. TV and radio spots from K-Mart have for some weeks been reminding us about layaway. And, I kid you not, a friend of mine got an email from Sears proclaiming that last Friday was the "new Black Friday".
Uh no. Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving in the U.S. where millions of shoppers think nothing of lining up for a few special bargain prices at 5am, or of jamming up the malls for hours all day. We generally go out to the movies on Thanksgiving and do our turkey on Friday. And we stay the hell away from the malls on that day -- and nearly ever other day of the year, too.
However I predict that this year will be worse -- Christmas II of the Recession That Ate Our Retirement Funds. Just as I was remarking about the bad economy driving Halloween bigger, there will be those trying to do the same thing with Christmas. It's unfortunate that the holiday shopping spree has been made to account for such a large number of businesses' entire annual profits. The pressure of Christmas is going to be HUGE this year.
Case in point: This Friday, 6 November 2009, will mark the launch of the Jim Carey/Disney animated 3-D version of A Christmas Carol, even showing it in 3-D IMAX. At the beginning of November? Whatever for? Well, I thought it was just being greedy and graspy for money, but today I figured out there was a "real" reason: because James Cameron's 3-D IMAX feature Avatar opens on Friday 18 December 2009 and IMAX theatres only have one screen. And since many Christmases, our IMAX trots out the lovely The Polar Express in 3-D IMAX, A Christmas Carol is getting squeezed out of near-Christmas viewing times. If they're going to make any money, they have to start early.
But You've Heard This All Before
Sure, it's an annual rant of mine -- a plea to be more rational and maybe an old fuddy-dud's wistful wish to return to the "good ol' days" when the Christmas season officially kicked off with Santa Claus arriving at Macy's on Thanksgiving Day. But this is all too early. Stores were breaking down their Halloween displays even on Halloween Day itself. There's always the stores whose Christmas stuff starts showing up in September. And there was distinctly a Christmas song playing on Star 105 around noon last Saturday, 24 October 2009 as I scanned the radio channels looking to see who was covering college football...
So is Dr. Phil really a Bah-Humbug Scrooge? No. I just don't want to see everyone going so overboard about the holiday so early -- and then burning out and being miserable and stressed out.
Merry Humshit, indeed. (grin)
Dr. Phil
Another successful transition (finally) to Standard Time from Daylight Saving Time. As for Halloween, we didn't get any treat-or-treaters again this year. Mrs. Dr. Phil figures that the pine trees have grown too high to see our lights on easily from the road. Plus we're the weird neighbors that don't mow their lawn.
I thought we'd get one set of customers, as I saw headlights drive up. But it was just Mrs. Dr. Phil pulling the Bravada back into the garage and shutting us down for the year. Ah well. Which brings me to...
It's Going To Be A Long Xmas Season
Today's Sunday paper was chock full of Christmas ads. The Meijer's insert had red ornament graphics with all the prices. The Best Buy insert had festive red bows on everything, including a page 1 HP complete system with a Mini, desktop, laptop and WiFi system for like $1199. TV and radio spots from K-Mart have for some weeks been reminding us about layaway. And, I kid you not, a friend of mine got an email from Sears proclaiming that last Friday was the "new Black Friday".
Uh no. Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving in the U.S. where millions of shoppers think nothing of lining up for a few special bargain prices at 5am, or of jamming up the malls for hours all day. We generally go out to the movies on Thanksgiving and do our turkey on Friday. And we stay the hell away from the malls on that day -- and nearly ever other day of the year, too.
However I predict that this year will be worse -- Christmas II of the Recession That Ate Our Retirement Funds. Just as I was remarking about the bad economy driving Halloween bigger, there will be those trying to do the same thing with Christmas. It's unfortunate that the holiday shopping spree has been made to account for such a large number of businesses' entire annual profits. The pressure of Christmas is going to be HUGE this year.
Case in point: This Friday, 6 November 2009, will mark the launch of the Jim Carey/Disney animated 3-D version of A Christmas Carol, even showing it in 3-D IMAX. At the beginning of November? Whatever for? Well, I thought it was just being greedy and graspy for money, but today I figured out there was a "real" reason: because James Cameron's 3-D IMAX feature Avatar opens on Friday 18 December 2009 and IMAX theatres only have one screen. And since many Christmases, our IMAX trots out the lovely The Polar Express in 3-D IMAX, A Christmas Carol is getting squeezed out of near-Christmas viewing times. If they're going to make any money, they have to start early.
But You've Heard This All Before
Sure, it's an annual rant of mine -- a plea to be more rational and maybe an old fuddy-dud's wistful wish to return to the "good ol' days" when the Christmas season officially kicked off with Santa Claus arriving at Macy's on Thanksgiving Day. But this is all too early. Stores were breaking down their Halloween displays even on Halloween Day itself. There's always the stores whose Christmas stuff starts showing up in September. And there was distinctly a Christmas song playing on Star 105 around noon last Saturday, 24 October 2009 as I scanned the radio channels looking to see who was covering college football...
So is Dr. Phil really a Bah-Humbug Scrooge? No. I just don't want to see everyone going so overboard about the holiday so early -- and then burning out and being miserable and stressed out.
Merry Humshit, indeed. (grin)
Dr. Phil
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Date: Tuesday, 3 November 2009 03:11 (UTC)As for Christmas stuff being out so early...I've been out of retail for 15 years now, the last 5 or 6 year I was in hell, we'd start breaking down the back to school to put up Halloween at one end of the store one day and shove the summer furniture & grills back out to the patio in order to put out at least the decorated Christmas trees the next. I very distinctly remember having a rash one Labor Day weekend that was from teh flocking on the stupid trees I'd had to decorate the day before!! Christmas candy would replace the trick or treat stuff before the little goblins even made their rounds!!
no subject
Date: Tuesday, 3 November 2009 03:54 (UTC)Doesn't make it "right". (grin)
Dr. Phil