The nightmare before Christmas

Christmas decorations overshadow those of fall holidays

By+mid-October%2C+the+Walmart+located+in+Baden+had+already+dedicated+its+garden+center+to+the+Christmas+Shop+for+the+season.

Baylee Stewart

By mid-October, the Walmart located in Baden had already dedicated its garden center to the Christmas Shop for the season.

Each day, shoppers walk into certain stores all over the county. However, as Halloween approaches, Halloween decorations are only sold for a short amount of time. Sooner than later Christmas decorations flood the shelves of those stores. Both dread and joy fill shoppers’ minds as they realize Christmas is nearing, but Halloween is being completely ignored. Is it too early to be selling these decorations, even before Halloween?

Walmart normally has their back-to-school theme out by the end of June or early July. Once school is in for everyone locally, they move on to Halloween for a short amount of time before they put out Christmas decorations. The Christmas theme is set out around late September, completely skipping Thanksgiving altogether.

During this time, people all over enjoy the idea of stores jumping ahead to the Christmas season.

“My initial reaction is that I am happy because I am really ready for Christmas and all of the cold weather and the snow,” freshman Madison Rhoades said.

However, there are copious amounts of those who strongly dislike stores briefly selling or skipping over Halloween and Thanksgiving.

“I get upset [that stores put out these decorations early] because it’s not Christmas yet,” freshman Emily Frashure said.

The debate of when to put these decorations out is very popular. Some say to put them out as soon as possible, whereas others want to wait until December. Few say that they would like an in between date, for example, after Halloween but before Thanksgiving.

“[These decorations] should be put out in November,” freshman Sara Mengel said.

Are these decorations really necessary during this time of season? Stores put these decorations out to prepare for the crowds who go early Christmas shopping before the rush. This would cause an increasing profit for these stores if people did come in for early Christmas shopping. However, does skipping these few holidays hurt their sales?

Fabric stores sell these items early because customers normally have to create decorations or gifts from the items that they are buying in their stores. So, it would be a necessity to sell these items early to give their customers time to create their decorations or gifts.

“I think that it is better for these stores to put their decorations for Christmas out so early because it gives people an idea of what they would want and put people in the spirit for Christmas,” Rhoades said.

This goes along with the widely known debate, do people think that this is beneficial? Again, some believe that it is, and some believe that it is not.

“I think that it is worse because a lot of people do not want to spend the money yet on these decorations,” Mengel said.

There is not much control into telling these stores if they should start selling these Christmas items during Halloween season. People’s opinions on when to sell these items will always be talked about. The same goes for if they agree or disagree with these stores barely touching Halloween or skipping Thanksgiving. If customers are Halloween fans, then the decorations they enjoy are gone in a matter of weeks, but if customers are Christmas fans, they’re in luck because these decorations stick around for quite some time.