Christmas creep shoving aside Halloween

Little goblins and ghouls will be roaming our neighborhoods for sugar highs tonight.

Under the Cape Girardeau School District's new wellness policy, class parties are supposed to avoid more than 30 popular candies, sodas and fruit-punch drinks.

But Skittles and Jolly Ranchers are still legal in Cape Girardeau's neighborhoods, along with tons of other sugary treats.

One local food columnist recently suggested that most of the desserts he creates wouldn't pass muster with the district's food police.

Not that I'm complaining. In past years, Joni and I have often thrown away some of the candy the children have received on Halloween night. It's either that or clean out an entire kitchen cabinet to house all the sweet stuff.

But none of this is as scary as the fact that Halloween is already being buried by the Christmas decorations popping up in stores. You'd think the big guy at the North Pole had misplaced his calendar.

Judging from the store displays, you would think that Halloween is just an extension of the Christmas holiday and that Santa's elves are all dressed up as witches.

When I was growing up, I don't remember stores displaying Christmas trees before Halloween.

Every year now, it seems like Christmas is starting earlier.

Pretty soon "Christmas in July" won't be just a phrase, it will be reality with stores decking the halls with all manner of Christmas decorations six months before the reindeer are ready to fly.

All this pre-Christmas stuff must be taking a psychological toll on Santa and his elves who must feel like they've fallen into some horror movie.

The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia calls its "Christmas creep." Sounds kind of scary to me.

Retailers hope to catch early Christmas shoppers by extending the all-important holiday season, business experts say. But most shoppers I know aren't ready yet for all that Christmas cheer.

We have to work up to it like an athlete gearing up for a major tournament.

When stores decorate this early for the Christmas holiday, it makes us feel like the Grinch.

Even my children haven't started talking about Christmas yet. If they can have such self-control, why can't retailers?

I love the fall season with its colorful leaves, both those still on the trees and those swirling around in the wind. Amid the burnt orange of fall foliage and pumpkin patches, it's easy to look ahead to Thanksgiving.

But Christmas isn't on my horizon yet. The fall colors don't speak to me of the red and green of Christmas. That's for another season and we're not there yet.

Granted, Cardinal fans did see Santa on TV during the World series. But that could be excused. The St. Louis Cardinals hadn't looked this good in a World Series in nearly a quarter of a century.

And amid a sea of red attire from Cardinal fans, Santa didn't look so out of place.

But I'm not ready to see him or any of his merry elves in the mall.

And don't get out the Christmas cookies. Not when all those little goblins and ghouls are eagerly knocking at our doors.

Mark Bliss is a staff writer for the Southeast Missourian.