Christmas Comes But Once A Year

All year, in some locations. It's starting to feel that way.

Brown Thomas is going to open its Christmas store on Thursday. If you check the calendar, you'll see that it's August, which is generally considered to be summer. Christmas, of course, is part of the winter scene. Unless you happen to be a retailer, in which case, Christmas is all year round.

Will we really buy more things if we start early, or do our purchases just get spread out over time if there is more time to make those purchases?

Back to work already? It feels like I just finished my rounds

There is something to be said for ginning up the enthusiasm for decorating as soon as you can. Those keen to feather their Christmas nest will browse and plan, and then start in to saving up. They'll hold off on buying other baubles, or find things to eliminate from their lives so that they have more money to spend on a single holiday. If all the Christmas-y items were only to appear on the first of December, there'd be no time for such careful financial planning, and that's just lost income for the shop owner, right?

So you're out and about getting the back-to-school kit in order and you're met with a reminder that in a few short months you'll be needing some spare change to cover the holiday traditions. Will you feel resentful towards Brown Thomas for reminding you of a sorry fact that causes you worry and sleepless nights?

Possibly. But we're all human and we can't resist a shiny object. Maybe in our prehistoric brain segments we think we have found water or something when we spot a display that glistens. There might be some neurological positive re-inforcement that follows, telling us to move forward and reach that which glitters. A blast of a morphine-like substance triggers the pleasure sensors and the thought of Christmas intruding too early is eased.

But honestly, do we need to drag Christmas into the late summer?

Can we not hold off until September at least?

At this rate, it's just a matter of time until Brown Thomas or one of their competitors decides that August is grand but July would be better, to get a leg up on the other shops. And then it will be June, and give it a few years and Christmas will indeed come once a year, but it will be all year.

And then it won't be so very special at all, will it?