Saint Nick's Preemptive Strike

I was in Wal-Mart after the movie, and noticed the two or three aisles of Halloween goods they had for sale. I didn't get the opportunity to check out these aisles and bask in the glory of all things Halloween, but I did wander over to their Home and Garden section and got a mild surprise...

A whole section of Wal-Mart full of nothing but Christmas merchandise. Trees, decorations of both interior and exterior varieties, those big inflatable things that you can stick out in your front yard, all that stuff. Now I could believe just having a few little knick-knacks out at this point, but having the whole darn section set up just 11 days into October? Is there that big of a demand for that stuff now?

I'll gladly admit that I'm a sucker for Christmas, and I have been since I was a little kid. But nowadays, I always get surprised when I see the Christmas stuff up in stores. It seems like it shows up earlier and earlier every year. I know I said a few posts ago that the start of holiday season should be October 1st, but it's still kind of a shock to the system to see such a wanton display of Yuletide festivities available for mass consumption like that.

As much as I want to, I'm almost afraid to start going ahead and getting into the Christmas spirit. Like I said, we're only a week and a half into October, and we haven't even hit Halloween or Thanksgiving yet. I don't want to get burned out. If I can hang on until Santa Claus shows up at the end of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, I think I'll be okay.