Christmas/Holiday Displays

[Knightmare]

Ok, kiddies! Are your Christmas/Holiday displays up yet? In the process?
Post here when your store (if applicable) decides to put them up.



I spent the night at work putting some up, and man, are some of these things tacky.
Lots of inflatable decorations. Lots of cheaply made trees. Lots of tacky ornaments. Most of this stuff makes me think "White Trash" or "Trailer Trash."

(Old Man rant) When I was a kid, we didn't have all this gaudy crap. We had big, multicolored lights made of real glass, and we liked it! No artificial ice hanging from the eaves; we had real ice hanging down just waiting to take out an eye! We didn't have "light nets" that you just throw over your bushes; IF we decorated the bushes, we placed each of those giant Christmas lights by hand! Our wreaths were made from real boughs; no plastic junk with sparkling lights that zip around with multicolor patterns. We didn't have those hollow animated reindeer made from plastic; If you wanted a deer in your lawn, you went out and shot one, had it mounted and hoped those giant Christmas bulbs wouldn't catch it on fire! No singing Santa, no Santa and Rudolph flying in a hellicopter, no light up Palm trees...

Honestly, I'm glad we didn't have that crap when I was a kid. My house (if I decorate) has only some lights and a wreath outside, and a tree and decorations inside. Most of the ornaments I have are handmade from friends and family from years past, and cannot be replaced. My tree, alas, is plastic. They don't have good trees down here in FLA. They are very skinny. Heck, they look dead, even when they are at the peak of health. So my tree is tall, full and looks like the kind I had up in Michigan.

Anyway, back to the topic. Post here when your store puts up Christmas/Holiday items. A separate post will be for the music!

[Gurndigarn]

It's kinda scary that your old man rant is mostly accurate. Usually, they're exaggerations, but...

Pardon the slight hijack, but when I was growing up, one of our neighbors put on a Christmas display every year. And since this was a fairly small town, it drew everybody to our road to see it. Traffic on this side street became rather bad, come December.

It wasn't a bad display. At least at the start. Sure, the decorated trees only had a string of lights looped around them a few times (I had been in downtown Salt Lake City before heading home one year, and the difference in care was huge. But then again, this was a small town, and it was a private display, so I'll forgive them), and the way they carved the bush to make a snowman made that bush look odd the rest of the year. But the nativity wasn't too bad. Every year they added a bit.

The problem was that they didn't know when to stop adding. Or to keep everything on the upscale side. Fortunately, the plastic Santa who had been attending the birth of Jesus eventually got his own trailer, along with the Grinch, and Frosty, and a host of other cheap plastic and blow-up doodads, including Spuds McKenzie*. Who didn't even don a christmas hat, or anything that would make sense of him being there. Nope, just a dog who likes to get drunk, joining the party.

I think they had the nativity set the entire time, but by the time the guy doing it died, you couldn't tell, because the yard was full of snowmen and giant santas, a few angels and candy canes, a giant trailer full of plastic, and on and on and on. Words really can't do it justice.

* Age check!

[chainedbarista]

i fear it will be all too soon (before halloween is too soon for me); i've already seen a copy of our holiday planner floating on the manager's desk. so the whole schtick is looming in the near future...yay and double yay.

[lordlundar]

Hehe! I like this tread. It's fun!

Our decorations visible from the outside consisted of lights in the window and around the porch. Inside was where it looked really christmasy (is that a word? oh well) We waned off of that before we moved and started hosting christmas. Now we really get into the spirit again and have a lot of fun doing it!

[Worker-Intellectual]

They started working on it last week... I came in one day and saw the coolers were gone and some shelves were in their place... I ask a guy in seasonal if they're putting up the christmas stuff... he says yeah... I say crap.

[Becks]

At the store, they haven't put up the Christmas decorations yet, but they had the fall stuff up since the middle or end of August.

[CanadaGirl]

I think we have a cheap looking scarecrow propped up among some beer near the back. No Christmas stuff yet, lol. I'm not sure what all happens here for christmas decorations, though. Hopefully not much.

[MadMike]

I'm already seeing Christmas crap up in some places, especially the craft stores my wife drags me to sometimes.



Thankfully, she doesn't do that to me nearly as much as she used to, because I always find some way to embarass her, like picking up two of those styrofoam balls and one of those stryofoam cones, and...

Seriously, she has her own car, she can go by her damn self, and not have to deal with me wanting to get the hell out of there.

Back on topic: I didn't mind when they started putting it up before Thanksgiving, or even before Halloween, as long as it wasn't too much before. But there's something just not right about seeing the stuff up when it's still shorts weather.

Next thing you know, they'll be putting up sale signs on 12/26 that say "Only 364 shopping days until Christmas!"

[AFpheonix]

The shipments are coming in, the risers are up with scads of toys going out on them, but none of the really christmas-y stuff is out yet. It's still halloween in the promo aisle, and fall has been delegated to a small endcap.

[Siduri]

My establishment is pretty tasteful with decorations, as they are with most decor. It's an old-fashioned-looking place.

For Christmas, they put a HUGE (real) tree in the dining room decorated with lights and some tasteful ornaments, put a wreath on the mantle and keep a fire burning in the hearth (we have fireplaces in many of the rooms, and the dining room has a big one). No plastic stuff, no figurines (glowing or animatronic... shudder), no godawful music. Just a subdued, old-fashioned wintery atmosphere. It's quite nice, actually.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

The Christmas section at my store is almost completely set up. It was supposed to be done yesterday.

[Kiwi]

Im a christmas snob

my tree is 3 colours max, usually a combo or gold/white/red/green

thats IT no tacky pinks and oranges or plastic. I buy 2 new glass ornaments every year and make my wreathes from real branches although I do use fake cranberrys, what can I say, christmas if my favourite time of year.... Im making my tarten bows and gift bags already... I go nuts at christmas

my mum puts on every single decoration shes ever owned in her entire life including the ugly ones me and my bro made as kids and these tacky santa head lights blech

[Knightmare]

what can I say, christmas if my favourite time of year....

Alas, I hate that time of year. I've worked in retail for so long that, to me, Christmas Day is just another day off.

However, my daughter (who will be THREE!! in January) knows who Santa is now. I was on the phone with her and I was telling her I was putting up the Christmas displays and she FREAKED! I heard the phone drop and her mother came over and told me that my daughter was looking out the window trying to see Santa.

So now I had better learn to love the Season again, for her. And I know I will, because her excitement will pass over to me.