I have resisted the pull of early Christmas on the grounds that I feel we should enjoy one event before being plunged into the next. Christmas has been spotted in shops and malls for over a month already. Customers have been asking where is our Christmas displays of goodies.
While going through a grouping of books for the shop, Cheryl found the following poem in Margaret Fishback's 1937 book ONE TO A CUSTOMER. Even back them merchants felt the need of an early Christmas. Hope you enjoy it!
LINES ON THOSE WHO GET THEIR CLAUS IN EARLY
List to the beating of their hearts,
The snapping of their arteries,
As in the eager retail marts
The merchants milk their Christmas trees.
Each year the season's earlier,
And I, a nature-loving dolt,
Am troubled lest the pine and fir
Shall lose their grip and start to molt
Before the Twenty-fifth is here.
For how can they survive December
When they were launched on their career
So prematurely, in November?
Eventually, I believe,
Our merchants, each an up-and-comer,
Will be promoting Christmas Eve,
In the preceding spring and summer.
Now come on folks, doesn't that say it all? They felt the push of an early Christmas even in the 1930's! Our Christmas push will be here in time for Thanksgiving. That's when the town of Selma has asked their merchants to be ready by.
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