My husband and I were browsing our local Books-a-Million on October 28 when we spotted Santa caps sprouting from a hat rack by the bestsellers.
“Come on!” I practically shouted. “It’s not even Halloween yet. Can I just have my holidays one at a time, please?”
Without missing a beat, my husband says, “They should market a Santa hat with a turkey leg sticking out of it and a rubber bat dangling from the end.”
I laughed, but then I got pissed. Because someone would buy that awful piece of crap.
The sad fact is that Christmas decorations are commonplace in stores during Halloween. The last three months of the year has come to mean an orgy of binge eating, blinking lights and commercialism. Our consumer culture revs the ugliest of its engines in a mad race for our “disposable” income.
For me, the overwhelming effect of this advertising avalanche and electric-tinsel-candy-cane extravaganza is nausea and forced time travel. It’s as if October is a steep climb to the tippy-top of that first death-defying hump of a roller coaster and November and December come at you in a great blast of air that screams “Happy New Year!” the second you reach the bottom.
This year, I’m digging in my heels and refusing to let commercialism hijack the rest of my 2014. If I can manage not to get dragged onto the ride, maybe I can have my Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas cakes all separately, and eat them too. Slowly.
So for today, my friends, I wish you simply a Happy Halloween.
[Steps off soapbox.]
Enjoy someone else’s rant about similar crap:
Why Wasn't I Consulted? 