Holiday Hype

To start with I am more then glad the Holiday's are over.  It the 3rd of Jan and I need a vacation from the holiday hype.  Everyone says that the stores put up the decorations earlier each year, and scarily their right.  Prior to my retiring from being a retail clerk I watched as corporate would send down the orders to put up the decor by the middle of August then it was the beginning of August and finally it was the end of July.  This year I found Christmas going up the middle of July and felt sick seeing it.  We just finished the 4th of July celebrations and hadn't gotten kids back to school and christmas was going up.

 And WHY? for the almighty dollar.  Retailer want to get your attention before the other guy does, in hopes that you will buy from them now and not wait till someone else puts whatever it is thats the big thing this year on sale at a lower price.  The problem being with the economy in the crapper still Everyone is waiting for the sale that will get them that special something at a price that will leave them with a couple extra cents in their pocket.  So the big Hype this year was the BLACK Friday sales that had people lining up at stores on Thursday night in hopes of the best deals.  My eldest son works for Wally World and was just thrilled at having to give up his Thanksgiving to be at work at 9pm to have the store ready for shoppers at 2am.

 It made me angry that I didn't get to see my grandsons because My Son had to work the holidays to keep his job.  So our holiday here was less then enjoyable because half our family was missing on both Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve. As a result I found myself not getting into the hype or the holiday spirit they way I did some 10 years back when I had all 3 of my kids around me and a Husband who got the holidays off because EVERYONE got the holidays off.  And the stores at-least tried to wait till Halloween to put up Christmas.

I guess I just wish the retailers would realize that we will still by what we want for our friends and family even if the wait to put up Christmas till the temp. drops and the leaves fall.  And that Black Friday should be on Friday not Thursday.