The 2014 holiday season has called it quits. The trees are going away (took mine down tonight). All the pretty bulbs are being rolled up for storage. Wrapping paper and bows have been returned to their dark prison in the bedroom closet.
Fin.
I noticed today while shopping that department stores and retailers of virtually all sizes aren't waiting to push Valentine's Day upon us. While passing Nature's Emporium, a local pet and garden center here in Burlington, NC, their electronic billboard was already touting the upcoming holiday. In bright letters, it said...
"GET YOUR VALENTINES' DAY FLAGS HERE!"
I thought to myself... wow! Not a week ago you were telling me how important Christmas was. Now, it's as if you've completely forgotten the holiday. I haven't even popped a bottle of champagne for New Years yet and you want me to confess my undying love via a garden flag?! Do you have amnesia? Then it hit me. This isn't just an isolated incident. Perhaps my thoughts about amnesia were spot on. What if nearly all retailers in today's modern age have HOLIDAY RETAILER AMNESIA?
Certainly, I can understand the imperative of a retailer to make a dollar. I'm a retailer myself. The holiday season between Thanksgiving and New Years is when I turn the highest profit of the year. But what's the difference between them and I? I don't forget to respect the holidays in their own time. I give each and every benchmark holiday on the calendar a chance to breath and stretch its legs, so to speak.
In essence, my point is this... and it relates to my previous articles about Thanksgiving being over-run by Christmas.
Give every holiday it's due time in the spotlight. If we stretch every single holiday out from one to the next, then those special days lose their luster.
Every day can't be a holiday, otherwise there would be no holidays.
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