As Halloween concludes, temperatures drop and Christmas tree sales rise. Stores across America replay holiday classics and replace Halloween sweets with candy canes. This transition is one we all know too well — but should it come so soon?
While some families are making grocery store runs for Thanksgiving preparation, businesses are quick to start marking up Christmas sales. Dilly Lily, a Lincoln Park floral shop, services event floral arrangements and sells household plants, greeting cards and candles. Eric Phillips, owner of Dilly Lily, said the small business faces pressure in preparing for Christmas because the season is filled with residential and corporate floral decorating.
“In a retail environment, you really have to be months ahead of the next major holiday — otherwise you miss out on those sales,” Phillips said.
Phillips has already stocked up on Christmas cards for retail sales and expects to put up storefront decorations in about a week.
“Once you start seeing those holiday seasonal things going up in those big chain stores, I feel the pressure to do that on my small level as well,” Phillips said. “Because if customers are gonna be shopping at those big stores, I would rather that they shop here.”
While much of the Christmas holiday is centered around commercial business, Rachelle Kramer, director of the Catholic Campus Ministry emphasized the importance of the holiday season’s true purpose.
“I don’t like when commercialism takes over the meaning of the holiday, and by that starting it months in advance,” Kramer said. “We’re just trying to capitalize on making as much money as we can, and whether you consider yourself Christian or celebrate it as a religious holiday, it’s a time of year that is beautiful for families.”
Though the American holiday season celebrates multiple cultural traditions, Kramer described the specific importance of Christmas to her as a religious person.
“I’m a Catholic Christian, so the center for me is the birth of Jesus Christ, which is why I think I have strong feelings against commercialism in the stores and all of the Christmas things coming out so early,” Kramer said.
DePaul Junior Byron Guzman believes that the quick transition between Christmas makes sense from commercial trends.
He said starting early is “justified because after people take down Halloween decorations, the next holiday to follow suit of putting up decorations will be Christmas.”
While Christmas is an exciting time of year for most people, Guzman argued that it’s not the same experience for everyone.
“I think it also has to do with the demographic being represented — it’s very much in relation to the white demographic,” Guzman said.
Guzman said he believes gift-giving during the holidays is largely stressed as a monetary form of celebration instead of a meaningful exchange.
“Christmas started as a religious holiday. … But it kind of lost its religious aspects and just became almost like a classism type of celebration,” Guzman said. “Those who are wealthy have the grandest prizes and the greatest gifts … and it’s more for showboating rather than actual passion.”
Regardless of what holiday you celebrate around this time of year, prepare for store shelves to be stocked with holiday essentials and decorations.
Related Stories:
The DePaulia is DePaul University’s award-winning, editorially independent student newspaper. Since 1923, student journalists have produced high-quality, on-the-ground reporting that informs our campus and city.
We rely on reader support to keep doing what we do. Donations are tax deductible through DePaul's giving page.
Support Student Journalism!