Stores Kick Off Christmas Season on August 2

If, as you’re sitting by the pool, relaxing on your holiday, or simply working conscientiously ahead of both, you happen to start thinking and worrying about Christmas preparations, fret no more. Stores in the UK, with Selfridges leading the pack, have announced they’re kicking off the Christmas season at the beginning of August, so brace yourself for lots of merriment and getting into the proverbial Xmas spirit, The Register says.

It’s not unusual for large department stores to start preparations and officially launch the Christmas season many months before the actual holiday, in the hope to boost sales and avoid the shopping frenzy we’ve all become accustomed to. However, doing so so many days in advance – a record 145, for that matter – may actually strike many as odd. Selfridges, on the other hand, says studies and surveys have left no trace of doubt: people DO start thinking about Christmas in August.

“The Xmas season will this year begin on 2 August – at least in one corner of London’s Oxford Street. That’s the date on which Selfridges will start its 2010 Yule campaign, having last year started flogging baubles and tinsel on 8 August. This time around, eager customers can stock up on ‘trees, crackers, fairy lights or even a £500 life-size donkey.’ The justification for this premature commercialization is that Selfridges claims ‘previous sales had shown some customers, especially overseas tourists, started thinking about Christmas during August’,” The Register writes.

For those who dread this type of promotion or who think summer may not the best period to open the Christmas season, there’s even more bad news: Xmas season may soon extend to last all year long. “Those of you who suspect that in years to come Xmas will begin on Boxing Day, allowing stores an uninhibited 364 days to shove seasonal goodwill down weary punters’ throats, have good reason to fear the worst. Geraldine James, Selfridges Christmas Shop’s buying manager, warned: ‘Christmas is coming earlier each year. I can see a time when we offer a capsule Christmas collection throughout the year’,” the same publication says.

Of course, those who really want to avoid the crowds and the madness that seems to take over department stores around Christmas time still have one more choice than to do their shopping in the middle of the summer: the Internet. As we also noted back in November 2009, going online to do all our shopping guarantees a completely stress-free Christmas.

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