Festive chocolate in first week of September - grim.

[OtraCosaMariposa]

My local Tesco on Friday started filling its shelves with selection boxes and chocolate reindeer.

A full 15 weeks until Christmas.

Cards on the table - I loathe all the tat around Christmas, It depresses me that people get caught up with the buy buy buy mentality pushed on them by the retailers. It depresses me that every time I walk into a shop for the next 4 months I am confronted by the tat. It's impossible to avoid it and I hate it.

I bought 2 tubs of Christmas Quality Street on 2 for £7 in Morrisons yesterday.
We don’t go overboard we just shop offers throughout the year with our aim being not to spend December in the heaving shops.
Plus with the potential of no deal Brexit looking over us, I want Christmas sewn up earlier this year.

I saw them in tescos in august. It is mad. My friend who works in retail said they do it as people buy them for xmas but eat them before so buy them again!!

I actually love it I buy one tin of sweets/biscuits etc each week when they’re on offer so that when the kids finish school and dp finishes work we can just hibernate with the stash I’ve built up. It’s a family joke now because I won’t let anyone see how much we’ve got hoarded away until December.

My local Sainsbury's has a section of their cake aisle already full of pannetone, mince pies, Xmas puddings and other festive food. I could hardly bear to look at it

(For context, I am one of those people who only allows themselves to get excited from 1st December onwards!)

Chocolate tins are often on offer early, so if it is something you will buy anyway it makes sense to buy at a cheaper price. I havebeen doing christmas planning for a month now, I have a small business and from the end of October I barely have time to draw breath, so I like to do christmas shoppping early.

Suits me fine to have the opportunity to buy christmas stuff now,.

I buy one tin of sweets/biscuits etc each week when they’re on offer

How many of you are there? Surely 15 tins of sweets and chocolate is rather excessive.

YANBU OP I hate how Christmas crap is in the shops before the Halloween items. November would be plenty early enough.

I was in my local Garden Centre this week - they are already putting away everything connected with summer and putting up the dreaded black out material for their Christmas section. I was very disapproving and the man said to me 'you won't be able to see the display until OCTOBER!'. Thank God I said! It is completely ridiculous and yet people will go and oooh and aaah over the tat from October onwards until everybody is thoroughly sick of Christmas by the time December comes.

15 or 16 tins of chocolates and biscuits? Or in reality, 15 or 16 plastic tubs. Plastic wrapping. Plastic trays to hold the biscuits in. We have one or two ex-biscuit tubs hanging around for lego and the suchlike but 16???

The whole consumerist aspect totally depresses me.

For those on a tight budget, there are only 3 pay days left before Xmas (not counting Dec, as getting paid on 23/24th doesn't leave much time for buying essentials) but even with 4 pay days, it makes sense to buy a little at a time if you don't normally have much to spare after essentials.

I have done loads of shopping for Christmas. I worked for a supermarket and knew I was leaving so took advantage of the discount before they stopped my discount card.

Doenst bother me usually anyway. You can totally ignored it. You donr have to start planning christmas now.

chasingseagulls thata an excellent point. Not everyone can start thinking about Christmas in November.

Oh and OP, those plastics tubs dont have to be wasted. Most people I know reuse them. Just like they used to reuae the tins.

I volunteer in a charity shop. A small selection of Christmas cards went out in August. We protested. Management overruled us. So now we're going to have cards out in August, September, October, November, December and January as each year they send too many, each year people are buying fewer cards and we have to try to get rid of them in the sale.

6 months of the year with cards on sale. It's total madness

I noticed these in my morrisons yesterday. Just ignore them , OP. No need to buy if you don't want to. I buy less Christmas stuff every year.

Why would you protest what the charity chooses to sell and when?

My SIL has been posting on Instagram for weeks. The entire last week of August was a daily countdown to 1st September, which is apparently the end of summer and the start of Christmas I’m not sure what happened to autumn...

I used to like Christmas as much as the next person, but all of the consumerism, plastic tat, social media and that bloody elf are honestly turning me into the grinch.

doesn't leave much time for buying essentials

Plastic tubs of chocolates are essentials? Just shows how skewed our collective thinking has become if what screams Christmas is mass produced, palm oil filled, cheap chocolate with plastic wrapping in a plastic tub.

There's only three prime ministers until Christmas.

I love it! Although I'd like to see more Halloween stuff in September 😂
It just reminds me of how skint I'm going to be in December! It's my baby boys 1st birthday on the 23rd and I'm due number 2.... on the 23rd and my nephews birthday is on... yeah the 23rd! So I really do need to get a shift on before I get too round to get out the front door!
I get sick of seeing the Christmas decorations but chocolate?... no! I think I love chocolate far too much at the moment!

HopefullyAnonymous - Yes I used to love Christmas and the wonderful magical feeling, but now I dread it. I wonder who will be the first to hear Christmas music in the shops!! This year we are going away the week before Christmas and will celebrate then with nice meals and Christmassy stuff - when we get home we are just going to act normally, not even a turkey this year! Much less stressful, I hope.

Why would you protest what the charity chooses to sell and when?

Because it's the volunteers who man the till and have to stand facing a fixture of cards for 6 months of the year. Because it's the volunteers who have to put up with the comments about how ridiculous it is to have cards out in August. And because the charity concerned makes a big song and dance about its volunteers being a valuable resource, empowered and as much a part of the business as the one member of paid staff in the shop.

I bought my Christmas chocolates in Morrisons on Friday, I'm happy with my decision.

My local supermarket starts putting all the non perishable Christmas stuff out early, then the “buy ahead and freeze” party food, leaving maximum space for the perishable stuff in the immediate run up to Christmas.
It not only makes best use of limited retail space, it allows people on low weekly incomes or benefits to spread the cost over three months.
I find it useful too, as I can buy in advance instead of having a mad rush to get food, presents, wrapping, cards and decorations all at the last minute.

I love it. But then finances force me to do Christmas shopping throughout the year. Admittedly though, I love the run up more than the day itself. I love the Christmas music and decorations and especially the lights so bring it on.

I used to think like you did but then I realised that a large proportion of people in this country are living on or below the poverty line.

If allowing them to spread the cost of some chocolates and sweets for Christmas means the rest of us have to 'see' them on the shelves early isn't something I can get worked up about anymore.