Creeping Yuletide—

Christmas In July;

It Could Happen

By Nancy K. Crevier

They seep insidiously into your head, wrap around your brain cells, and infiltrate your subconscious. Before you know it, you’re raking fallen leaves and humming holiday carols to yourself. Why are these songs tripping merrily from your tongue with Halloween barely laid to rest and Thanksgiving still on the horizon?

If you have been out shopping anywhere in the past two months, there is a good chance that a holiday tune or two has been setting your mood for Christmas season. Jolly jingles have mixed with jazzy blues over the sound systems in malls and shopping centers since mid-October.

At CVS and Brooks Drugs, located on either side of Queen Street, stacks of Christmas candy and rows of plush Santas seemed to bully their way into the aisles even before the witching hour of Halloween was over. A plump, plastic Santa Claus has robotically greeted CVS customers since the first week of November, ushering customers toward the glistening holiday displays of treats and toys.

What is the rush? When did the celebrations of autumn become eclipsed by the Christmas shopping spree?

Donald Bates, owner, and Cathy Dahlmeyer, manager, of The Drug Center on Church Hill Road agree that over the years holiday marketing has started earlier and earlier. Marketing of Halloween, the second biggest retail event after Christmas, begins in late summer. The few Thanksgiving decorations and chocolate turkeys are swallowed up by the colossal holidays that sandwich that family holiday, they say. Sixteen years ago, when there were only one or two places for people to shop and big chain stores were not yet prominent in the area, ordering holiday stock didn’t happen until late summer or early fall. Now, they need to anticipate each selling season in order to get a fair price on their merchandise. That means that next year’s holiday merchandise will be ordered in February or March.

“There is just so much competition now,” says Mr Bates. “People will buy an item where they first see it.”

This year, The Drug Center had Christmas items on the shelves in early October. “The stuff came in [to the store] in October,” Ms Dahlmeyer says. “If you don’t put it up, someone else will.”

The Toy Tree in Sandy Hook Center starts stocking up for Christmas in August, according to owner Michael Palumbo, and he had many shoppers getting a jump on their holiday shopping in October. “You won’t be able to walk in here by November 28,” he says, with enough toys packed into the small space to give Santa’s elves toy envy. The Toy Tree prefers to hold off on holiday decorating, though, until after Thanksgiving. “It’s fun to wait until it’s colder,” says Mr Palumbo. “You get that feeling and it puts you in the mood.”

Just around the corner, tre Reggaze retailer Veronica Iseppi says that owner Lisa Morrison has had plenty of clients already in the mood. Customers have been ordering monogrammed jewelry for the holidays since early autumn at the gift and accessory store on Glen Road. Like The Toy Tree, tre Reggaze prefers to wait until mid to late November to deck its halls, but the holiday Swatch watches put on display around Halloween have been flying out the door and plenty of customers have been in looking for holiday gift ideas. People are so busy these days, thinks Ms Iseppi, that they start seeking gifts earlier each year to avoid the last minute rush. Customer pressure puts pressure on retailers to keep up with early demands.

“We bucked the trend for years,” claims Joe Summo of Newtown Hardware Store, “but it’s still business.” Years ago, he says, the hardware store did not put out holiday merchandise until after Thanksgiving Day. “Now we start setting up the first week of November. We stick to the basics, like lights, extension cords, multiple outlets, and tree stands.” The first week in November, a customer bought more than $100 worth of Christmas lights, he says, and adds, “You need to compete.”

Shoppers at Lexington Gardens are greeted by a harvest atmosphere in the entryway of the Church Hill Road store. Oranges, rusts, browns, and golds are the colors of choice, echoing the autumnal world outside the doors. But just a few steps inside, and the season rapidly switches from the warm hues of autumn to the glitz and glitter of the Christmas season.

Jacqui Wiggins has been the manager of the Christmas shop and gift areas of the store for 25 years. “We start setting up the trees right after Labor Day,” she says, “because it takes so long to decorate.” More than 15 trees are decorated with different themes in the main Christmas shop section of the store, with many other trees (upside down and hanging from the rafters, as well) spread throughout other areas of the retail space. Pretty candle pillars, rows and rows of elegant ribbons, multicolored bows, lights, garlands, wreathes, miniature villages, baskets, angels, Santas, and snowmen make up other holiday displays that require hundreds of hours of setup time.

 Some customers grumble about the holiday merchandise coming out before the fall holidays are over, but most, says Ms Wiggins, look forward to it. For many of their customers it is an opportunity to gather decorating ideas for their own homes. “It’s kind of a fantasy for them,” says Ms Wiggins. “We are very careful not to carry what you can get in discount and bigger stores. They enjoy looking around. We want our customers to enjoy the atmosphere and create ideas for them.”

Ms Wiggins notes that the retail holiday season has been making an entrance ever earlier each year, and suspects that the trend is driven by the big discount retailers. Her observation, though, is that most early shoppers are shopping for themselves and their homes, buying things like candles and holiday cards. The present buying does not kick in to high gear until very close to Thanksgiving.

Despite the need to set up the Christmas department so early, Ms Wiggins says that Lexington Gardens tries not to actually decorate any of the trees until October. She admits, though, “If you don’t do it [set up early] you’re going to lose the market share; but we try to do it slowly.”

Resistance, it seems, is useless in a world that revolves around an active economy, and so long as consumer demand fuels the pace of the market place. The best one can do is go with the flow and have a holly, jolly… autumn.