Opinion: People Are in the Christmas Spirit Too Early and I Know Who to Blame

Call me Scrooge, The Grinch, or even Burgermeister Meisterburger, but it's just how I feel. We've just finished Halloween and I'm seeing so many people who have skipped right over Thanksgiving and are already gearing up for Christmas. I don't remember it always being like this though.

When I was a kid in the late 70s, we had one family on the street that I grew up on that always put their Christmas tree up the day after Thanksgiving. We all thought that was crazy early.

In our house, the tree went up a few weeks before Christmas. It was a fake tree and it tended to stay up later than it should. My mom even told us in February, "If you don't take that tree down, I'm going to start hanging Easter eggs on it."

At some point though, the start of the Christmas season got pushed back earlier and earlier and now people are even talking about Christmas BEFORE Halloween. I have already seen a few homes with their 12-foot skeletons replaced with 12-foot Santas.

What do I think caused this early rush to Christmas? Retailers.

About two months before every holiday including Easter, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Halloween, and Christmas, the shelves get stocked with everything associated with those holidays. Let's also not forget Black Friday, which didn't become a nationwide thing until the mid-1980s.

All of that has contributed to the two months of Christmas that we now have today. By the time Christmas rolls around, I'm all Christmased out.

Just call me The Grinch if you want. I promise I won't steal your Christmas tree.