Holiday decorations fill the shelves all the year round, but specifically in fall and winter, the stores begin to overload with products. Some repeated from past years and others have new products in hopes of gaining more consumers. However, it comes to a point where the amount of holiday items that are for sale, and the timing of when they are put out in the store seems to be ridiculous to some while others it seems to be not enough time.
It seems as though it would be ridiculous to think about some holidays such as Christmas and Hanukkah in months as early as October, but on the other hand some people already have their minds on New Year’s Eve and Day plans and started buying decorations and planning for that.
Dr. Eleanor Novek, associate professor of communication said, “It seems that every holiday is now associated with certain types of products instead of religious or civic meaning. Thanksgiving is about Butterball turkeys instead of giving thanks. Mother’s Day is about flowers or jewelry instead of expressing appreciation for a family member. Christmas is almost entirely about buying too many things, and hardly about faith at all.”
There seems to be a blurred area in how holidays are forming to be such huge gatherings. Whether it be through the stores and corporations releasing holiday decorations months before that holiday comes around or that people have simply formed their own holidays to be so commercialized, at any time right now, consumers can find the products and gifts that they would need in a heartbeat. Then again, who doesn’t love the holidays?
Janaya Lewinski, a political science major feels strongly against the pressure that most stores put on their customers. “People are pressured in every single direction to buy things for a holiday due to the fact that there is stuff everywhere,” Lewinski said. “Such as the fact that on Valentine’s Day it is broadcasted everywhere that one is pressured to have a Valentine,” she added.
Lewinski also feels that people are forced to buy decorations months before the holiday making them spend even more than they would be originally spending and more money than they can actually afford.
However, on the other hand Joseph Ruggiero, a freshman communication major, expressed his feelings against the holidays due to the fact that advertising them months in advance takes away from the current and upcoming holidays.
“Christmas shouldn’t be advertised or celebrated until the month of December,” Ruggiero stated. “It seems to be that the most important holiday that involves family, friends, and football also known as Thanksgiving, is completely forgotten and overlooked. People are more concerned in today’s society to get through Thanksgiving as quickly as possible to get it over with and go out shopping for Black Friday which is pathetic,” he added.
Roommates Brittany Tiano and Ashley DelVecchio feel quite strongly about the holidays and both agree that holidays are too commercialized.
Tiano feels that by putting out decorations and planning for the holidays ahead of time seems to be rushing things and making times go by faster. The holiday that is occurring at the moment seems to be less important.
DelVecchio agreed with her roommate, Tiano, and feels that the smaller holidays such as St. Patrick’s Day has been blown out of proportion.
DelVecchio said, “People celebrate all holidays regardless of their religion, which makes no sense.” She added that, “The deeper meaning of holidays of spending precious time with your family has disappeared.”
Some people love the fact that decorations and presents for holidays are easily accessible and available in abundance. However, it seems to be that that for some the value in holidays of spending treasured time with your relatives is disappearing.
“Don’t blame the stores. People can break the cycle by agreeing to stop the cycle of consumerism,” Novek said. “Show people you love them by doing something nice for them. It doesn’t need to be fancy. My husband and I give each other I.O.U’s for a foot rub or wash each other’s cars. Bake somebody a batch of homemade brownies. Make them a music mix. Babysit their kids for an evening so they can go out. Stop shopping so much, and then you won’t see the Christmas decorations in the stores in July.
PHOTO TAKEN by Bryan Epstein
