Christmas in September? When Is Too Early for the Shops to Deck the Halls?

It’s 5th September. For some children, the summer holidays aren’t even over yet. 

There may still be buckets and spades in the boot of the car, half-used bottles of sun cream in the bathroom and memories of ice creams on the beach still reasonably fresh.

And yet, in some shops, Christmas has already arrived.

Retailers including The Range already have their Christmas sections up and running, with festive decorations, ornaments and other seasonal goodies beginning to appear on the shelves.

Now, you might think that That’s Christmas 365 would be wholeheartedly in favour of this.

After all, the clue is rather prominently displayed in our name.

We do our very best to promote the spirit of Christmas for all 365 days of the year. We firmly believe that kindness, generosity, friendship, good food, family gatherings and the occasional bit of festive sparkle needn’t be packed away with the decorations on Twelfth Night.

In that respect, we like to think we have something in common with the redeemed Ebenezer Scrooge, who famously promised to honour Christmas in his heart and try to keep it all the year.

But even we’re wondering: is early September perhaps a little too early for the shops?

And the answer is... we genuinely don’t know.

There are good arguments for getting Christmas stock out early. Some people like to spread the cost of Christmas over several months rather than face one enormous spending spree in November or December. Keen crafters and Christmas decorators may also want to start planning their displays well in advance.

And, naturally, there are those wonderful Christmas enthusiasts who simply enjoy seeing the decorations appear.

On the other hand, there’s something slightly surreal about encountering Christmas baubles and festive ornaments when some youngsters haven’t even returned to school after their summer holidays.

Does starting Christmas retailing this early make the season more enjoyable by extending the anticipation? Or does it risk making Christmas feel less special by stretching the commercial season across a quarter of the year, or even longer?

Perhaps there’s an important distinction between keeping the spirit of Christmas throughout the year and selling Christmas throughout the year.

At That’s Christmas 365, we’re decidedly ambivalent about this one.

We love Christmas. Obviously. We wouldn’t be here otherwise. But does seeing Christmas displays in the shops on 5th September fill you with festive joy... or have you reaching for the calendar and muttering, “Not yet!”?

We’d really like to know what our readers think.

Is September the perfect time to start Christmas shopping? Should retailers wait until October? After Halloween? November? Or would you happily browse Christmas decorations in the middle of July?

Please let us know your thoughts.

Because when it comes to the spirit of Christmas, we’re happy to celebrate it 365 days a year.

But whether the Christmas retail season should last quite that long is another matter entirely!