Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
Thanks to greedy merchants and marketers, Christmas has lost most of its glory. Christmas is starting much too early for me these days.
I’m a little late in posting this – I took this photo last weekend over at Jesse Israel’s at the WNC Farmer’s Market. Yes, pre-Halloween, and here were all these Christmas trees, decked out.
Let me tell you that this makes me tired. Tired of the relentless hard sell onslaught that I know is coming. Depressed. Depressed about being told over and over that I must be filled with cheer and glad tidings. Stressed. Stressed out for not buying any gifts yet. And I’m writing this on November second.
Sigh.
Here are more signs of the shameless milking of the Christmas cow:
Yesterday, the Biltmore House put up its giant Christmas tree, an annual rite that signals the start of its Christmas season. In a couple of weeks, the downtown Ashvegas merchant’s group will put on its annual Christmas parade – those big bows will be going up on lamp posts any day now.
Radio ads blare that Santa will arrive at the Ashvegas Mall on Friday, courtesy of some car dealership.
And about two weeks ago, the chestnut guy – the guy who sells those wonderful-smelling roasted chestnuts – was spotted outside Greenlife Grocery with the fire stoked, bagging up nuts. Only it was like 80 degrees out. And what’s up with him moving from Earth Fare at Westgate, where he always used to be, to Greenlife? I’ll tell you what’s up – Greenlife is the happening scene. But that’s a topic for another time.
You seen any other signs of Christmas coming early? How do you deal?
Blame the day after Thanksgiving sale extravaganza for all of the early Christmas bs.
I do love the holidays. I love the excuse for family and friends and loads of yummy food. However, this whole shop till you drop business is really over rated. Most years I can’t afford to buy a bunch of crap for folks anyway.
I miss Thanksgiving being a separate holiday. These days it’s all twisted together in one huge lump of red and green wrapping paper and gift cards. Ho ho ho Merry Thanksgiving!
You’ve made one big mistake here, buddy. The chicken-shit Asheville Merchants Association caved in to political correctness a couple of years ago and we no longer have a Christmas parade in Asheville. We have a “holiday” parade. What holiday? Pick one: Hannukah, Channukah, that thing African-Americans “discovered” as part of their culture 10 years ago or, oh yeah, Christmas.
i think we need to cut the stores some slack.
their buyers buy the christmas stuff way before the 4th of july and ship it to the stores 3 months before the actual holiday. the stores have to put it up early because they don’t have room for all that ‘in the back’.
let’s face it, some people shop early. and i always make fun of them.
until this year. i have to admit – i’ve been picking up christmas gifts since about august.
i buy online a lot, but i also give both weavervegas and ashevegas a good share of my money.
the nice thing about christmas shopping early is that you can walk into the huge section (be the only one there!) and get the ‘first editions’ of new character ornaments and NASCAR heros.
i really impressed my kids when i gave them an original harry potter tree ornament a christmas before anyone knew who he was.
here’s my idea – let’s allow the retail stores their chance to sell stuff early, but let’s find a corner section of the store to showcase their stuff instead of us having to walk through it just to get to the cosmetics counter.
believe me, if you shop early, you get the good stuff.
and the best part is that you can sit back and enjoy the holidays without having to go christmas shopping.
Gee, what a bunch of Grinches! Take a pill and chill.
there are only four things that even come close to getting me in the “xmas spirit”: watching “bad santa” (there’s just something about lauren graham that makes me, oh, i dunno…) watching “a christmas story”, being able to successfully avoid any form of xmas music until maybe one week before the holiday, and being secure in the knowledge that my sanity and general well-being are intact because i don’t have to set foot in a shopping mall during the christmas season.
thank bob for amazon.com.
(oh yeah, november 25th is “buy nothing day”!)
Gingerbread houses and related Christmas decorations are going up at the Grove Park over the weekend.
I’m with you, guy. The whole scene makes me tired and stressed and depressed. How about one holiday at a time? My house is still decorated for Halloween; there’s candy sorted into little piles all over the kitchen table. I’m just STARTING to think about inviting people over for Thanksgiving dinner, but now I’m getting slapped in the face with Christmas? Two fricking months of it?
I love it when it gets down to 40 degrees and Darcel refers to it as “bone-chilling” or a “bone-chilling visit from old man winter”
What do you call it when it actually gets below freezing? “Potentially fatal temperatures?” Yup, if you strip naked, pour a bucket of water over your head and get hit by a news van rushing to the scene of a registered sexual offender shopping in the children’s cereal aisle at Ingles.