Image from WikiMedia by Lotus Head.
I was in a Starbucks yesterday, doing a NaNoWriMo write-in. (Did my first and second ever word sprints. I need to work on fighting the impulse to correct typos, and maybe I can hit 700 words a sprint next time!) Guess what was playing over the speakers? Christmas music! And it’s been going on for at least a few days. In the second week of November.
This is madness!
Honestly, I’m fine with people getting in the holiday spirit whenever makes them happy. I think December first is plenty early, but I’m not forcing a limit on people. Still, music at a store is rather unavoidable. It’s not one person feeling the joy, it’s everyone being forced to listen to unseasonable jingles. You can put in headphones, but then how can you have random conversations about your pets when you’re supposed to be making your daily word count?
What do y’all think? When do you start decking the halls? Right after Halloween? After Thanksgiving? Sometime in December?
Interesting factoid about this . . .
Back in the day, it simply was NOT DONE to advertise or sell for Christmas before Thanksgiving, which was the last Thursday in November. In 1939, it was going to fall on the 30th, making the shortest possible Christmas selling season — and so Franklin Roosevelt spurred the economy by moving the holiday to the third Thursday. His Republican critics hated the move so much that half the states refused to go along, and had TG a week later, resulting in a Republican T.G. and a Democratic T.G. The confusion lasted several years. It wasn’t until 1956 that all states celebrated on the same day.
That is interesting. Commerce!