What d'ya mean Christmas is less than two months away? Stop with the commercials!! I'm not ready yet! I'm not done with 2004, I still have things to do. 2005? Whaaaat? Nooooo!

i've been designing christmas stuff for the past 3 months. fa-la-la-la-la.

hey, there are six stations in the country that are playing nothing but Christmas music already. some have been playing it since the 1st.

Stores here were displaying Christmas stuff BEFORE Halloween

Does Thanksgiving not exist in the States anymore? What gives?

Christmas was effectively tainted for me after working two Christmas breaks during college at Belk department store. Hours upon hours of "Jingle Bells", "Frosty the Snowman", "Jingle Bell Rock", "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth", etc, etc made me go insane. Not to mention working until 6pm Christmas Eve and having to work the day after Christmas only to see an avalanche of people returning their gifts.

I still like buying stuff for my friends and family and enjoy the Christmas spirit but man I hated Xmas during those years.

Try being an orchestra and choir teacher from late october through christmas break.

Jeezus.

Thanks-whosits????

Macy's tried to get me for their parade many years ago when I worked for them. I had to do some serious dodging to get out of that.

Years later there is a part of me that thinks maybe I missed out. Could have been fun.

Steve

Yeah I was in Target ten days ago and it was all Halloween decorations.

Then I had to go in there yesterday and WOAH! It was tons and tons of XMas stuff. Freaked me out momentarily.

Oh, and the xmas catalogs have already arrived from Target and Toys R Us much to the joy of my son. He was on the couch the other day circling what he wants for xmas.

macy's thangsgiving day parade has always been the Christmas kick-off for me, since i was a kid til now. its stupid and a sort of brainwashing, but i'm glued to the tv like it were a respirator. its the sentiment of the thing. there's no Christmas until a giant, inflatable teddy bear is symbolically thrust into the air with green and red trimmings. there's no Christmas before that. so i just ignore k-mart and urban outfitters' feeble attempts to get me into the 'spirit.'

so, steve, you'da been my hero if you were in that parade. my cousin beth was a cheerleader in it once!

I was at Sam's Club last night in Nashville (nee Bellvue) and the place was covered with Christmas stuff and they were playing Christmas music. I was all WTF? And they were all "pay up, bitch."

WHOO HOO! I'll FINALLY be out of LA for Christmas. Thank goodness.

Tell me about it.

A building up the street already has some of their Xmas lites lit up...been that way for 4-5 days.

although my gf did pick up a fabulous light up gnome at urban outfitter's last weekend.

So true. If you work retail, Christmas is even doubly annoying. I used to work as a customer service manager at a Target, and the store manager would drag out the Christmas cd's in mid-November. It turned me off of Christmas music forever-- Mannheim Steamroller (the most detested), Mariah Carey, Boyz II Men, Country Christmas samplers.... ick.

Yes, hours sucked too, but hey Ben, at least you were part-time. Managers at Target had to work 6 days a week at 12 hours a day on average. And yes, I had to set up and manage that stupid gift exchange on the day after Christmas. Pure hell.

the funny thing is that she could probably could've gotten the exact same gnome at k-mart.

all i really wanted for xmas didn't happen on election day. i don't believe in santy claus anymore

if you work in retail everything is doubly annoying

Christmas for me is four days: The Sunday before (one afternoon with the extended family), two days before (shopping) and then Christmas Eve and Day. Even though i do other things like make my employees decorate the office and shit, i am blissfully ignorant to the WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYY too over-the-topness of the holiday; And it makes it better that way. It makes me happy.