Postpone Christmas til November, Halloween til October etc.

[beguilingeyes]

When I'm Prime Minister I'm going to make this a priority (sod the economy).
No Halloween stuff in the shops in bloody July, nothing Chritmas until after Halloween, or preferably bonfire night. And please make bonfire night an actual thing again.
Chritmas starts so early now I'm already over it by September.
Is anybody with me?

Well yes, of course you will, but that's got nothing to do with this thread 🙄

So do you buy your kids the wrong size uniforms every year then?

Ha! No, I have to order it from Sainsbury's and wait to collect it instead of just being able to walk in and pick it up.

School shorts are a particularly hard item to find because despite the fact September is usually still really warm the shops have decided it is already the depths of winter and once again you are prevented from buying a range of clothes appropriate to the actual time of year that it is

It's a year round problem really. Kids change size at all times so it really makes no sense that the amount available should be greater or smaller at any time of year so it is particularly galling that it is early July when it's in larger quantities. The absolute last time anyone needs it.

You can just choose not to buy into it. Shops wouldn't dedicate shelf space to it if people weren't buying it. Some people want to start buying things early because its how they budget. I don't buy anything for Halloween so it doesn't phase me either way. I don't buy anything for Xmas until advent. Except mince pies which frankly should be a year round event. And I can't find it in me to be arsed about people buying egg shaped chocolate at any time of year. Its just chocolate.

We do stock other items but the seasonal items ie Halloween, Christmas etc accounts for most of our profit. We do still have summer games pools etc out but sales of those have slowed down completely.

Yes but it will involve having to purchase Christmas themed items.

I see what you mean. It might be cheaper to do that online in bulk maybe.

Tk maxx has loads.

I am totally with you on that one, would be amazing.

I worked in a large supermarket for a couple of years and I do understand what you are saying.

The amount of seasonal items that a store predicts it will sell, especially Christmas, would probably fill the back room storage 10 times over. The supermarket I worked in used to have an enormous marquee that used to go up in the compound behind the store around mid November for extra storage.

And I think it's definitely got worse over the years as Christmas has got more commercialised and more faff gets added (Christmas Eve boxes, Elf on a Shelf etc). So people buy more because they feel they ought to. Thinking about another thread, would this load of new faff be a thing if men were mostly in charge of Christmas? Possibly not.

Plus a lot more families have two full time working parents and it's not as easy to do Christmas shopping in the week beforehand if you are both working and juggling nursery/school pick-ups etc., so I know I found it useful to be able to start picking up bits earlier. I used to do a bit of early Xmas shopping during the half term break at end of October to get the basics sorted - cards, wrapping paper, basic stocking fillers etc.

But put it all down an aisle away from the main shopping aisles now, and bring it to more prominent display in November. I still see no need to have mince pies on display now, with best-by dates in mid November. That is madness.

I really very much object to the "christmas = buying loads of stuff" ethos. It's depressing and wasteful that so many people spend so much money on tat and "stuff" that they have to spread their spending over 5 months. Also nobody needs any of the halloween stuff they have already in TK Maxx.

Last year, John Lewis had removed everything Christmassy by Dec. 17th and there was no festive wrapping paper to be had.

It had probably sold out.
They wouldn't have removed any.

A lot of people try to spread their Christmas spending, so I get that.

But I too saw Halloween stuff in TK Maxx yesterday and thought it was a tad ridiculous.

At least let's get back to school over first

100% agree! Life goes by fast enough as it is!

I'd also argue that "back to school" is needed in July as our kids here go back 14th August. (Scotland). But "back to school" also infers the need to buy all "new" stuff even if you don't need it / haven't grown out of last year's which is also ludicrous.

Why do you care?
Some people need to buy gradually.
If you don’t like Halloween stuff in August…. Just don’t buy it.

It’s a known thing in TKMaxx. People wait in anxious anticipation for their Halloween stuff. Why wouldn’t they buy into it?!

Do they?

I had no idea and I'd consider myself a TK Maxx fan. Interesting.

I bought my kids uniform mid June, a whole month before we'd broken up 😂 I meant to buy it earlier, I've ordered it at Easter before now for September. It means I've only got school shoes to pay for last week of August (booked my Clarks appointment last week!)

I love the Christmas stuff being out early, advent in church tends to be mental so I'd rather get organised early. Our tree and decorations go up mid November.

I'm not fussed on the autumn/Halloween stuff but capitulate because my DC loves it.

I am probably not your target voter though 😂

Mince pies are just food, you can eat it anytime, if people like it why shouldn't they be able to buy it? It seems very controlling to dictate when shops can sell or I can buy mince pies.

No 🎄🎅🏻

I'm okay with selling school uniform all year round - kids grow, they rip the knees out of their school trousers etc.
But most of what we buy for Christmas presents is available all year - if you've got small kids, you can still buy them toys earlier in the year to prepare. We don't need aisles of baubles and wrapping paper from September onwards. I think we all need to buy less seasonal crap that ends up in landfill .
I do get the point about some shops not having the capacity to store all stock for it to be sold in the correct season but equally a lot of consumable stuff is made especially for sale before it's actually needed. Most of the mince pies for sale on October would go off before Christmas - they don't need to be in the shops that early. It ruins the specialness - it's good to have certain things only available at specific points in the year.
Same with non seasonal fresh food - yes, we buy it if it's there but it doesn't really need to be available all year round. Fruit and veg tastes better if you buy it when it's in season, rather than looking great but tasting like watery shite because it's grown for appearance, not taste and has been kept in storage or flown halfway around the world.

Yes school uniform needs to be all year. The only time I bought uniform in the summer was for their first year at school. After that it was whenever they either outgrew it or had worn it out

I think we all need to buy less seasonal crap that ends up in landfill

Amen to that.