Holidays | Photo by Monica Brutto | The Wright State Guardian
The holiday season calls for gift-giving, decorations and gathering with loved ones. Students and the community who frequently visit stores may notice that holiday essentials can be purchased as early as October.
The Christmas creep
The months of October through January are packed with many eventful holidays, which often can be shopped for in corporate stores like Walmart and Target. As stores make an effort to supply shelves with holiday gifts, decor and essentials, holidays appear to be arriving earlier and earlier.
Shoppers can witness Halloween products placed in stores after back-to-school products leave shelves and Christmas hitting stores as soon as immediately after Halloween. As each year passes, many notice the holidays beginning to overlap in stores.
“If you’re looking to kick off holiday shopping ASAP, Target Circle Week from Oct. 6-12 is a great start. Our popular seven-day event is back with big deals on picks to help with your holiday prep, fall favorites, everyday essentials and more,” an article from Target’s website reads.
Many call the phenomenon of holidays in stores the “Christmas creep” or “Holiday creep,” describing how holiday items appear earlier in stores each year.
According to an article from CBS News, “Holiday creep,” the term for when retailers start selling holiday-themed items before the traditional start of the season, is a phenomenon that has been at play for years as retailers try to get a jump-start on sales.
For holiday enjoyers, more time to embrace the season can be seen as a plus. Differing opinions often call motives for the holiday creeping into attention.
Motives & opinions
It is no secret that the holiday season is a consumer-driven holiday, so the efforts of stores to stretch out a normally one-month season into two or three is not shocking.
For those interested in the motives behind such early holiday prep, the reason is often found to be profit-driven and for consumer convenience. Driving early sales is what motivates companies to start the celebration early, distorting the traditional season.
Retailers who put out holiday merchandise earlier are often accommodating to consumers who rely on purchasing gifts and holiday essentials early due to busy schedules.
“For the last several years, approximately 2 out of every 5 holiday shoppers have started browsing and buying before November,” the Nation Retail Federation stated.
Not all consumers enjoy the way holiday seasons have become distorted into different months.
“[It is] too early. I understand a month out, but it gets excessive when it’s multiple months in advance,” Anna Minton, sophomore at Wright State University, said.
While many motives for an early holiday season signal convenience for consumers, this is not the only factor.
As the Christmas creep is most notably executed by corporations, profit is a big factor that influences the decision to put products on the floor at certain times.
Retailers who put out holiday merchandise earlier and accommodate consumers who rely on purchasing gifts and holiday essentials early due to busy schedules know that this drives more holiday sales, with more holiday merchandise on the floor for longer.
With the busyness of the holiday season, the Christmas creep is a phenomenon that yields many differing attitudes, but it is important to be aware of the motives behind corporations.
