Does having Christmas stuff in the shops for 4 months of the year cause Christmas to be a letdown

[Fiis]

I think it does. Those tubs of inferior chocolate like Roses, are not Christmasy as places with a moderate Muslim population have them on sale for Eid.

Visited 5 or 6 European countries in Sept and Oct and their shops had nothing! These countries celebrate Christmas.

If these countries are able not to have Christmas crap in the shops in Sept. Why can’t the UK?

I have seen Halloween and Christmas decorations in B&M last week. It definitely takes the edge off of what should be special times.
Mid to end of November should be the time for Christmas decorations /chocolates to be in shops.

It's too much. It's not needed and takes away the excitement of Christmas. I always think that people who are over excited by Christmas 120 days before the event can't have much going on in their lives.

I love Christmas! My go to comfort telly is anything Christmassy, for example, but I had to pop in to The Range the day before our summer holiday at the start of August. It was during the heatwave and it felt so wrong seeing decorations while I was wandering about in my flip flops and shorts.
That being said, up until this year, my husband and I have struggled financially and it has been so helpful to buy the odd stocking filler, non perishable food just to try to spread the cost. So I’m torn really.

I hate it and think it ruins it as its dragged on for that long I'm fed up of it by December. However no idea what it's got to do with Muslims/Eid that you mention. They put it in the shops now to make more money as people start buying things like chocolates now then eat them and repeat numerous times until Christmas!

If it didn’t sell, shops wouldn’t fill their very lucrative shelves with it.
UK shops do it because there’s a demand.
You don’t like it - fair enough.
A lot of others do like it, for whatever reason.

Just walk on by. Live and let live.

August is very early but my DH doesn't get paid until the end of the month, after Christmas so we do need to start picking bits up in October. Not loads of tat and decorations but things like alcohol and chocolate with the weekly shop, to give as gifts.

Huh?
What's the connection with Islam?

There needs to be a new Law:

NO Christmas things in shops until October.

But that’s the point of the thread really.

So need more than 30 days to have a Christmas that leads up to expectations.
Why is this a thing in 2025.

Possibly because we have 24 supermarkets, global online shopping and literally anything and everything available to get all year round? How can anyone compete with that. How can Christmas be special if you can now recreate Christmas in September. 10 years ago you could get mince pies and Christmas cake in November. Now it’s August!

Absolutely agree with this.

Sainsburys only used to put their Xmas TV ad from the day after Remembrance Sunday or Armistice Day (whatever came last). They put it out 3rd Nov and my friend and other colleagues who have been working for Sainsburys for 20+ years, thought it was dreadful.

Did you read the op?

Yes I did.
A brief mention of Eid that didn’t really make sense in relevance to shops selling Christmas stuff.

My friend that worked for Sainsburys, they condensed the Xmas stuff around 22nd Dec as some stuff didn't get further deliveries beyond certain dates, then start to put out the promo duvet covers, ceramic soap dispensers etc.

Don't start on the customer who asked her on a Dec 18th, did they have any advent calendars left! A week before!

I love it when everything is ripped down and goes back to normal on Boxing Day. It used to make me sad taking the decorations down, but now I see it as new year and a fresh start with everything all cleaned up. Winter Solstice has just been and by February you can start seeing signs of spring.

I read it as OP being annoyed that these items are sold for Eid and not just for Christmas. And my point was, that it’s about the shops wanting to make more money not Muslims. I’m not quite sure why you’re struggling to follow this.

But it's not Eid at the moment or coming up to Eid.
Both of the Eid festivals have happened already this year.
I honestly don't quite understand the OPs point.
Food products (like the tubs of Roses) are pretty much sold all year around so they are available for any and all the festivals that happen in a year. Why would that make the OP annoyed?

I am like this. I do our Christmas things on our timetable every year. I don't move to cake and pudding until after I do jam and chutney. I just do it at my pace.

I love celebrating seasonal events, in their season. We will do lots of autumnal stuff, but once everyone is over back to school etc.

I am not going to alter my timetable for anything other than the weather, if the seasonal stuff is possible, it will be done.

If not, I will be running around the village. snipping at bushes!

Some people think those tubs of Roses are just Christmas things. They are not. These tubs are not sold all year round. Just Ramadan and Eid plus Christmas.

I wish that Christmas stuff was not on sale until at least the autumn school half term. What I would do is have double VAT on early sales of goods and other items that are Christmas themed, in January and February on Easter eggs, for example. At least then some money could be raised for public services or to reduce taxes elsewhere.

It doesn't take anything away from Christmas for me though.

They're sold at end of school year... Easter etc

There are christmas chocolates and my local sainsbury's, and some of them have expiry dates before christmas. You can't freeze them. I just don't see the point

I don't see why anyone bothers with christmas.To be honest, it's just a massive amount of food and a waste of presents. For what reason exactly.

I know religion is absolutely derided on here. Well let me correct myself christianity is. Muslims, fine, you know, let's not criticize them. But I am a Christian, and I would quite happily, just go to all the church events, the carol concerts, the volunteering events leading up to it at my church and spend christmas day itself in church and then have a nice meal during the day. To me that's christmas. My family never went over board with presents, and we were actually christians.

All the cards and presents and waste is just neither here nor there i don't actually know why people bother
The pressure you put on yourselves for no reason is ridiculous

This 👆 The materialistic side of Christmas is what lets it down for me. I've been cutting down on family presents for the past couple of years due to a low income and no-one wanting gifts filling their home with unnecessary clutter. My family welcomed it. So much so, we've decided not to buy for any adults this year. The relief is incredible. I might actually enjoy Christmas this year 😊

@ILoveWhales people feel pressured into buying stuff that nobody wants, all for showing off on SM.

I love the traditional things of Christmas - decorations (no pink or rainbow trees) but not OTT. Carols - I never tire of them. It’s the same old tired 40 songs of Wizzard, Slade, Mariah, Jonah Laurie (Stop the Cavalry) that are played to death for 6-8 weeks of the year. Especially in shops - which I have worked in retail.

The original concept of playing Xmas music was to make people cheery and spend more. Now the psychological effects have been reversed. Xmas music makes people grumpy and spend as little time as possible in the shops. It also makes the staff more exhausted. As well as being crazily busy, they use more energy to block out the music. Then when a customer made a comment about the music such as “does this music get on your nerves?” Then my brain hears the music!

The music played at my retailer employer was done centrally- so all the shops had the same song playing at the same time. They even played it 4 hours either side of trade hours! We had a solution - tape somebody’s phone onto the tannoy button playing either streaming or stuff uploaded. Oh it was lovely hearing heavy metal, rock, punk and indie music! We asked the managers could we do this permanently. No was the response. Would have loved to see the reactions of the old dears on playing Metallica etc

@Fiis you don't have to post on social media you know.
Not you specifically let me clarify. You in the general round as in people do which is what we both mean.

I very rarely post anything on social media at christmas. Maybe I posted a picture of the walk I did but it was just scenery.

Remember a colleague at one workplace where she was panicking about what to buy her sister’s fiancé’s gran. I said to her - don’t buy anything as you are not related.

Then just buy for immediate family. She was buying for her step grandad’s DC - who were 10-15 years older than her DF. Plus her Nan only married step grandad when she was 73. Only knew the step grandfather’s DC for 5 years