Jeannette Cooperman at The Common Reader:
Weeks ago, the sweet family across the street put up their festive holiday lights. The house on the corner followed, then three more houses, all before I had even managed to order a Thanksgiving turkey.
I curse the lights.
Typically American, I mutter, meaning of course U.S. American, where we are so arrogant we subsume all the countries to the north and south, and so profit-driven that revenue (read: greed) makes all our communal decisions.
But then I read that in Australia, the luxury department store David Jones Limited starts showcasing Christmas merchandise in September. Not to be outdone, Irish retailer Brown Thomas opens its Christmas store in mid-August. The U.K. has moved promotions to October so people can shop before Black Friday. Canadian retailers tried, too, but were met with hot protest at any suggestion of Christmas preceding Remembrance Day.
The alliterative, Dickensian term “Christmas creep” was coined in the mid-1980s, well before Black Friday showed up to rationalize it.
More here.
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