Too Soon...?

It's bound to happen, every year in every store in the country.

"It's too early," some say. 

"They should at least wait until after Halloween," others add.

"That's just wrong!"

I remember a talk given by a friend's father. He gave the talk in church and it was given at Christmas time. He talked about how, for as long as he lived, he's heard people say the same thing.

"The stores put our their Christmas merchandise earlier and earlier every year."

He then went on to explain that this statement is, in fact, an impossibility. He said that if the statement were really true, then--considering his age--he would see Christmas goods for sale earlier and earlier. So if he started recognizing this phenomena when he was ten-years old and the stores began selling their Christmas stock one day earlier each year, and if this new tradition began the day after Thanksgiving, for example, then when he turned seventy-years old, the stores would set up their displays sixty days earlier. This would mean the displays would go up around the third week of September.

You could argue that's happening now, especially if you visit a Costco near the end of summer. Maybe the saying is correct and my friend's dad was wrong.

Possibly, until you add the element of time. 

Add another thirty years, you'll get another thirty days. Now Christmas comes in the middle of August, then July, then June.

I took the above picture last Saturday, barely into October. Each year we see a Christmas display at a store and we think, "it's too soon. It comes sooner and sooner each year." I sometimes catch myself thinking the same thing. Then I remember that little talk and I realize it's just not true.

Even though it feels true every year.