Before we know it, Black Friday will be held the week after Good Friday each year. What’s with the retailers that we can’t get through at least two weeks of November before they start bombarding us with holiday early sales pitches?
They’re downright brazen about it, too. Get all your holiday shopping done now, they trumpet. Best prices of the season, they promise. So what will they do with the weeks to go before the actual holidays, call off the sales? Not on your charge card, my friends.
I do admit that I shopped early. The annual “winter celebration” office parties have been set up, so I grabbed a gift exchange present three weeks ago. But I only did it because I know that when office parties get planned eight weeks in advance, the best gifts to meet the pre-approved spending limit will be sold out seven weeks in advance if they’re not scooped up immediately. Besides, I know that most folks get more expensive items for gift exchanges by getting them on sale for the spending limit price. That $15 heated ice scraper is only worth about $5 anyway, right?
Can we really trust holiday food gift tins that were assembled in a hot factory in mid-July? If we buy them now, how much worse will they be by the holidays? They may be on sale, but I think I’ll pass.
Do we really need to buy all new stuff to throw about our homes just to impress people who only stop by for five minutes? Take those specially scented candles that you can’t use on December 26 because they look Christmas-y (and you’re too pooped to light them anyway).
Traditionally–at least when I was a kid back in the stone age–Black Friday was the day when the department stores unveiled their holiday trimmings. Putting them up in advance was inconsiderate and lacked class. Santa used to climb into the window of the department store after the Thanksgiving parade to “prepare Toyland” for the kids. The store had a display window that opened on Black Friday: they didn’t put out a sales circular that took out a forest tree (not to mention the back of whomever had to deliver the daily paper with it tucked inside with 2,000 other ads).
When I was a kid, Black Friday started the countdown to Christmas. Of course, there wasn’t mention of other religious celebrations, which was not particularly indicative of America’s tolerance agenda, but I don’t think we should discuss that subject now: that’s for another column in which I may well get myself in trouble for telling another side of the story. When I do, though, I hope those other forgotten December celebrants will be happy I mentioned them. The stores won’t care: they don’t set up pre- other holiday specials, do they?
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