Sophomore and Junior Discuss Views on Early Holiday Advertising

Erin Reilly

“And now back to the John Tesh radio show on Star 102, Kansas City’s Christmas station.”  Shoppers dart from aisle to aisle as the radio plays over the loudspeaker, snatching up that last pair of UGGs for Sally and that remaining set of Harry Potter LEGOs for Jimmy, gripping their sale ads in a panic. This would be a perfect example of Christmas preparation, if it weren’t in October.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Christmas time, and for many reasons. I love the music, the eggnog, the excitement, and it’s only a few weeks after my birthday. But Christmas is an event to be celebrated, not promoted. While I understand that retailers need to sell their wares by cranking out sales faster than Santa can fly around the world in one night, it detracts from my holiday experience; by the time Christmas actually rolls around, I’m already tired of it. There’s only so many times you can hear those vociferous chipmunk voices warble about how they ‘still want a hula hoop.’

I know I’m not the only one to notice that companies are pushing their holiday sales earlier and earlier. On October 24, Abercrombie sent me an email stating “We’re feeling naughty and sneaking Christmas in early!” And that was just the start of a long, long month of advertising.

This year, while trying to entice shoppers in a dwindling economy, retailers such as Target and Macy’s offered mind-blowing discounts from 50-75 percent off “hot holiday gifts.” And the sales continued to crescendo into this year’s Black Friday, when hundreds of stores opened their doors to an all night feeding frenzy for ravenous shoppers; Old Navy, opening at 10 p.m., stayed open through the night as its shelves were emptied by bargain-hunters of all ages.

It’s not just stores that are beginning Christmas advertising ASAP. Last year, my family and I spent Thanksgiving in Disney World for my sister’s dance competition. It was a gorgeous Thanksgiving day, filled with pilgrim Mickeys and Minnies parading by as I ate my mashed potatoes in the 65 degree weather. Then, what used to be a turkey’s worst nightmare was drastically transformed nine hours later into a “winter wonderland.” The whole park was a picture of Christmas mayhem, complete with hundreds of fully decorated trees (some exceeding 14 feet tall), a new Christmas parade series (in contrast to their elaborate Thanksgiving parade) and fake snow periodically littering the streets for Mickey’s Merry Christmas Party. I doubt you could find a family more enthusiastic about Christmas than mine, but even we were a little taken aback by this dramatic change of seasons. It was like holiday PMS, but I just couldn’t keep up with the mood swing.

The media even desecrated one of the things I look forward to most during the Christmas season: the ‘25 Days of Christmas’ marathon on ABC Family, with Rudolph and Frosty helping to count down to Christmas day. With all the other pushes towards an early Christmas, I guess it was inevitable that there be a countdown to the countdown to Christmas this year, the climax of which is a new Christmas movie, ‘The Dog Who Saved Christmas Vacation.’ What’s the harm in that, you ask? It stars Paris Hilton.

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Emma Pennington

I’m not one for cold weather or snow, but something I do enjoy is the Christmas holidays. Some say Christmas marketing has gotten out of hand, but I like to think of it as prolonging the season the majority of us know and love.

Unless you’re the Grinch, I’m not sure how you couldn’t enjoy the holiday season. With Christmas comes family gatherings, holiday parties and gift giving. Without the build up to Christmas in the previous months, these types of activities would not be nearly as enjoyable. They would all be packed into one or two weekends instead of spreading it out over the months.

Just a few months ago, after taking off my Tooth Fairy tutu and tiara after a night of Halloween festivities, I crawled into bed with a familiar realization: there were only a few hours until the Kansas City’s Christmas station would begin playing holiday music. The John Tesh radio show on Star 102 has all the classics from “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” to “Silent Night.” Since then  I have been playing it in my car and bedroom nonstop. These songs never fail to put me in a better mood, even more so than when I listen to songs such as, “We R Who We R” by Ke$ha.

One of my favorite Christmas traditions is decorating the tree– turning on a Christmas mix CD and carrying what seems like hundreds of boxes up from storage in the basement. My dad puts the twinkling white lights up on the tree, while the rest of the family begins to hang ornaments. Then all three kids gather around our old, tattered box the holds our manger. We’ve always believed that whoever unwraps the baby Jesus is going to have good luck in the upcoming year. Unfortunately, I’ve never unwrapped him.

If people only celebrated on Dec. 25, or even the week of Dec. 25, activities like putting up Christmas trees, wreaths and even garland would be pointless. No one would want to put the tree up on Monday just to take it down seven days later. But, if the decorations are put up nearly a month in advance, that gives people time to enjoy the decor.

The concept of Black Friday, I’ll admit, has become crazy. However, like many Americans, I’ve bought into this day of shopping. In years past I have gone to the Legends or Best Buy with my family at 10:00 p.m. just to get in line for stores to open in the early morning. Some years it has been freezing. But we always prepare with handwarmers, feetwarmers and coats on top of coats. Yes, it is ridiculous to deprive yourself of sleep just to get a cheap new sweater.  But it’s always been a fun tradition to stay up all night with my family waiting in lines and people watching.

Lastly, if the months prior to December weren’t marketed towards holiday shoppers, people would wait to buy their gifts. With sales beginning all the way in October, gift givers can spread out their buying season. The National Retail Federation predicts that Americans will spend $447.1 billion on merchandise during the holiday season. For the economy’s benefit and people’s own pockets, America should continue to have sales beginning early on in the season. This way shoppers don’t have to drop all their money at one time.

The holidays are enjoyable for many reasons, but if the ever-exciting build up was taken away it just wouldn’t be the same. There’s got to be a reason why many Americans say Christmas is their favorite holiday, but all of that would be subject to change if the build up was taken away.