Some of you may remember that last year on my old blog I wrote a similar rant, but Christmas is apparently coming even earlier this year and I’m so irritated by it that I need to vent again.

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It’s October 31^st…HAPPY HALLOWEEN!  Or is it Merry Christmas??  Did I miss Thanksgiving?!  I guess I’m confused because the ever-adorable elves are already spreading Christmas cheer everywhere I look.  Starting last week, red and green was creeping into the orange and black aisle in CVS…aside from the fact that these colors clash terribly, we’re really going to start confusing innocent little children by making them think Christmas starts in October.

This isn’t to say that I’m all bah humbug about our jolliest of holidays, or that I’m going to go Grinch-crazy on retail stores, but please, I’m begging you, MAKE IT STOP.  Every December I anxiously await the chance to pack up the fall decorations and bust out the boxes of holiday fun.  There’s little that I love more than singing Christmas classics while sipping on a cup of hot cocoa with a dash of peppermint schnapps and wrapping presents with unnecessarily large/sparkly bows…but PLEASE don’t try to make me start doing this before I’ve watched the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.  I consider this to be Santa’s first official appearance of the year and simply don’t want to see him surrounded by fake snow at the mall before then.  Love ya Santa, but don’t round up your reindeer quite yet.

To any of you reading this who understands why our society feels it’s necessary to start jingling bells and roasting chestnuts before we’ve put away our gourd-filled cornucopias, I would love to hear your thoughts.  I understand that we’ve created a domino effect and stores now try to beat each other out by being among the first to get their decorative displays up, but WHY?  This phenomenon, which has been dubbed the “Christmas Creep,” makes no sense to me whatsoever.  Which brings us to what I am effectively naming 2011 Store of the Year for it’s valiant and continuous efforts to break out of this mold…drum roll please…

Nordstrom!  This fabulous chain has made it tradition to delay the decking of their halls until the day after Thanksgiving—as it should be!  The Boston Herald recently featured an article about this store promise and the positive reactions it’s gotten from shoppers who like their holidays “one at a time.”  The most amount of kudos to you, Nordstrom, for standing out from, and above, the crowd once again.  I will most definitely be doing as much of my holiday shopping as possible with you, and truly appreciate and applaud your choice to give Christmas the acknowledgment it deserves, when it deserves it.

A sign displayed at Nordstrom from a past year