The cold weather and the colorful trees remind me that the holidays are creeping up more quickly than I would like. The holidays are a time for family, friends—and the frenzy of buying gifts for them. I haven’t even started devising my plan to fast two days before Thanksgiving so I can feast on my mom’s baked macaroni and cheese and green bean casserole, and already the TV blares with commercials yelling at me to “save before the holidays!”
Everywhere I walk outside my sans season’s greetings apartment, I’m assailed with advertisements boasting Christmas scenes, sayings and sales pitches.
I think businesses advertise holiday merchandise because they feel it will give everyone the advantage of slowly choosing which gifts to get their loved ones. I believe it has the opposite effect though. Advertising the holiday season months in advance makes many worry they’re behind the curve in making their holiday purchases, adding much more than last-minute stress to the season.
Sure, advertisers want to take a marketing campaign and run for as fast and as long as they can with it—it’s in the name of better business. But if businesses anticipate more business than they actually get, it is ultimately not a very good decision or investment to fill their store shelves with so much holiday merchandise. After the season, businesses are often forced to cut prices to the bare bone, not making much money on retail. Also, many businesses must pay end-of-the-year taxes on whatever merchandise—be it clothes or cars—they fail to sell during the season.
Black Friday is by far the most commercial event of the year. When I think of Black Friday, I imagine people bashing each other over the head for the last Optimus Prime action figure at 7 a.m. Instead of spending quality time with family the day after stuffing their faces with turkey, people feel the need to cruise around town to battle people for the most coveted gifts of the season.
My sister is one to have all of her holiday shopping done the weekend of Black Friday. She has such a busy schedule that she feels the need to finish all her shopping a month in advance; she buys twice as many presents as necessary, and then spends a month stressing about wrapping all of them and making sure she doesn’t confuse what package goes to which relative.
I’m the opposite—I usually meander through the mall about two weeks before Christmas to keep my seasonal stress at a minimum. I have no trouble finding what I would like to buy, and packing my anxiety about the holidays in the last few days before Christmas Eve.
Just this past month, Halloween came and went, but no sooner did I slip out of my Halloween costume than I was slammed in the face with Christmas specials and sales. I don’t mean to sound like Mrs. Scrooge, but all the nonsense about getting into the Christmas spirit right after Hollow’s Eve is really the scariest part of the season.
During the first Sunday of November, I visited my roommate who works in the Valley Mall. Sadly, I wasn’t surprised to see store windows sprinkled with seasonal displays. I see no snow on the ground; why should there be snow in store windows? It’s as if overnight, the wonderful world of commerce has turned into a winter wonderland.
The time between Thanksgiving and New Year’s isn’t the only time businesses pounce on consumers for their seasonal commerce. As soon as the clocks click over to add a new digit to the date and hangovers subside from New Year’s Eve festivities, stores are stocked with Valentine’s Day goodies. Small shops and big businesses paint the town pink, only to repaint it green Feb. 15. And once St. Paddy’s Day is over, we see everything in red, white and blue! It’s like a ceaseless cycle we must face for every major holiday we celebrate.
But this cycle is exacerbated if we are constantly bombarded with messages of “buy this! buy that!” We are so concerned with materialistically pleasing our family and friends with presents that we forget how our much our presence at family gatherings mean during the holidays.
The holidays can be a stressful time as we finish up finals and semester-long projects, coordinate trips home and fit everyone onto our tiny holiday shopping list because of a meager money supply. But when we can’t even take a deep breath of fresh fall air before agonizing about the Christmas shopping season, we have a serious problem. America is already stressed enough, without adding yuletide insanity into the mix. Don’t let businesses bamboozle you into thinking you have to rush into the holidays and not take the time to enjoy what they’re really about.
Anna Young is a sophomore SMAD and sociology major.
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