To think it's silly that shops are already replacing Halloween stock with Christmas stock?

[Cantheowneroftheredcorsapleasemovetheircar]

Yesterday, so 25th October, I took my daughter to The Range so we could choose some new Halloween decorations for Friday night.

Walked in and it was like Christmas exploded in there. Christmas lights, trees and decorations everywhere, Christmas music playing. Halloween decorations shoved into a corner with reduced stickers on.

Now I don't mind Christmas decs being out, I see why they do it. Trouble is, the Halloween decorations were by no means sold out yet or even depleted, people very much still wanted them. There were massive piles of them shoved into the corner, it was a busy Saturday there were loads of people crowded round the Halloween decorations, trying to buy them, but unable to properly look at them because they were all piled onto one tiny section with everyone crowded round it.

Hardly anyone paying any attention to the Christmas stuff, which filled the entire shop.

Picked some Halloween stuff, took it to the counter, and the lady said "it's good to buy it now, when it's all reduced, isn't it? It means you can put it away for next year!"
I'm like.... Halloween isn't for a week??!! They're for this year??!!

WTF? Makes zero sense.

At least a got a discount I guess 🤷

15th used to be a normal time to put your tree up. Only 10 years ago, stores were still full of real Christmas trees to buy at that time.
Now it's "are you all ready for Christmas?" by 15th November, never mind December!

What kind of pumpkins are you getting that are mouldy that quickly???

Our pumpkins have last ages but we don’t cut them until it is a few days before Halloween. We had some we didn’t cut and they lasted ages. Made pumpkin soup out of them, kept the seeds to grow and some for eating and put the rest in the compost bin.

Tesco usually have huge cardboard bins at the entrance, full of pumpkins for sale, of all sizes and sometimes different shapes and colours.

I regularly see mouldy ones in there. The staff fish them out and put fresh ones in.

As they are labelled "carving pumpkins" and not marketed as being for eating, the food standards aren't as high, I imagine.

Working at my last job, pumpkins came in the potatoes dollies. If a pumpkin got damaged, it half stank and we had to get rid of the rotten pumpkins. The poster who had a mouldy pumpkin probably bought one with a knock on the skin.

Read somewhere that if you give your pumpkins a bath of water with some white vinegar, then apply Vaseline on the cut areas. Plus use battery operated candles or tea lights as the heat can dry the pumpkin and make them mouldy

The carving pumpkins are fine to eat. DM makes soup, cakes etc with carving pumpkin flesh and dries out the seeds too.

Well I bought some in Aldi and one of them went mouldy and has gone in the food waste already so….

Aldi has a poor temperature control in its supply chain, why stuff gets mouldy quick.
Also with pumpkins, don't buy with dents, bruises and cuts as that is where the mould develops
Pumpkins should be let be in a well ventilated area for a week after harvesting, ie removed from the stalk.

BM have done it this year. Halloween stuff occupies one end of an aisle whereas Christmas takes up 3 aisles. I do remember with christmas last year looking for decorarition in BM and they were already winding down on like the 2nd week of december.

This reminds me I need to start the kids christmas stocking bits from BM soon before it all goes!

Yanbu .
But what i hate more is when shops have taken down their store Christmas decorations and sell off their Christmas stock in the days leading up to Christmas day- Home sense did this last year .
I think it is so disrespectful to shoppers who have paid full price a few days before , at least wait until after boxing day when the sales are on and it's expected.

I agree with you, I've seen a 1950's black and white photo of kids queueing up to visit Santa's Grotto in George Henry Lee's (no longer extant) in Liverpool - photo was taken in October. It's been this way since Christmas was an event to buy things for, it's not new!

What IS new is Halloween now being a commercial event - in my childhood in the 70s it really wasn't. You could buy things for it and have parties around it, but nothing like the decorations and costumes you get now, it has really ramped up this century. But coming in the period where retailers are gearing up for Christmas, it must be a bit of a pain as it's too big to be ignored but nowhere near the commercial importance of Christmas.

They’re interested in maximising profits so recognise fewer people are buying for Halloween a few days before, most do it in advance.

I love Halloween and have my decorations up most of October, it’s like a mini Christmas in that sense. I don’t buy new decorations all that often so the market is lost on me to be honest. We get a real Christmas tree and I always get the DC a new bauble to go on it on the 1st December as a tradition but I don’t often purchase new lights etc, same for Halloween.

God I wish.

DP has always been obsessed with halloween. We've got more Halloween crap than Christmas tat. Goes up on the 1st October and then I have to take it all down myself as otherwise she'd let it live there till Christmas

It's stupid but people buy it so...

Halloween hasn’t sold the last few years in my store. I think the cost of living crisis plus it being so close to Christmas and people have forked out a fortune for uniforms in the run up to September play a significant part. We haven’t had anywhere near the amount of stock that we were having a few years back and even that doesn’t all go. I guess it’s as others have said, Halloween is one night and Christmas lasts longer so people have different priorities. We have sold a lot of Christmas stock this year already which is a good job because the warehouse is full of it.

Totally agree - Hallowe'en is a non-event in my book. However, it is quite a good way of getting rid of out of date chocolates and sweets if you suspect marauding kids might come to your door!

Or what my friend’s DF does is to keep the Lindor wrappers he gets for his birthday- his birthday was Friday. Then wrap sprouts in them. Kids round where he lives have things put into their buckets by the residents. Kids forget which house gave what. 🤣

I know they are fine to eat. I was just saying, because they say they are for carving only, they can get away with less than perfect food hygiene standards. So they pile them up and just pick out the mouldy ones now and then

Can't wait for Halloween to be holder, it gets in the way of my cosy Autumn time to think of Christmas. I don't like Halloween, it's annoyingly orange, I think I'm probably the Halloween equivalent of Scrooge.

Christmas gets in the way of my cosy Autumn time.
People like to pretend winter starts in November. It really doesn't.