Christmas before Thanksgiving, again?
Stores across the country sparked an annual debate by setting up holiday displays at the start of November.
Many businesses, including large retailers Walmart and Target, along with smaller local stores in Logan, have had lights, trees and other holiday decorations and merchandise available since early September.
The Utah State University Campus Store is one of these retailers, having started setting up their holiday display on Nov. 1 this year.
Jason Brown, the director of the USU Campus Store, said the main reason for the decorations is they make people happy, but also that the end of the semester plays a big role.
Not only is the end of the semester busy for the store because most of their business during finals week comes from textbooks and exam supplies, but students also leave campus for Christmas break. If they waited to set up decorations, students wouldn’t be able to enjoy them for long.
Brown said they also have sales and events throughout the Christmas season, and they want to be prepared by already having set the mood.
“We do a lot of the fun holiday stuff earlier in December,” Brown said. “But by about the second week of the month, we roll into the academic side of it, then everyone leaves campus.”
Nicole Morgenegg, the marketing manager, said there are multiple other reasons for the early decorations.
“Christmas is the next big holiday after Halloween,” Morgenegg said. “There’s not really Thanksgiving music and decorations.”
Morgenegg also mentioned because the store is located in the Taggart Student Center, where many students walk through every day, it’s important for them to feel the spirit of the holiday season.
Becca Crummitt, a customer service supervisor, said the decorations bring a lot of joy to not only students but staff too.
“It’s been really fun for the cashiers because we get to do all the decorating,” Crummitt said. “We got to decorate the Christmas trees. I loved putting the topper on even though I’m the shortest one.”
Crummitt said while some students have had a negative attitude towards the decorations, they aren’t bothered.
“Christmas is whenever your heart tells you it is,” she said. “I feel like you should be able to put up decorations at any point in time, even though you may have to hide them for a while.”
Alongside the decor, the store is also offering a Cyber Monday sale the weekend after Thanksgiving and is expecting to offer seasonal merchandise and other promotional items.
USU’s on-campus store isn’t the only local retailer preparing for the holidays. Anderson’s Seed and Garden, located at 69 W. Center St., is also prepared for the season and has been for months.
Anderson’s Seed and Garden opened in Logan in 1942, and their holiday display started small in the 1960s.
Mark Anderson, a third-generation owner and president of the store, took over the store in 1999. He said the displays started with about six trees but has continued to grow every year since he took over.
As of Nov. 5, the store had dozens of decorated trees on display, as well as other decorations for sale spread throughout the store.
Anderson is proud of the store’s extensive displays and said it takes almost a year to prepare.
“We order almost all of this stuff almost a year in advance,” Anderson said. “We get started decorating in September, as the Utah State starts up. It’s the perfect transition time for us to start weeding out the gardening stuff and start bringing all the holiday decor in.”
Anderson also thinks that merchandising earlier in the year is effective for business purposes, even when some people claim to be against it.
“More people are purchasing earlier, especially this year,” he said. “Customers will come in to see the Christmas merchandise when it’s the first week of September and ask why we are starting so early. They will look at it, and sometimes even buy something before they leave.”
And according to the National Retail Federation, or NRF, Anderson is correct in his observation. More than 50% of consumers began holiday shopping before Thanksgiving in 2019. This number is predicted to increase this year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Even students can get on board with the idea of an early Christmas. Shelby Green, a freshman at USU, doesn’t see any problems with holiday decorations in November.
“For me personally, Christmas decorations and the season bring me a lot of joy,” Green said.
This trend, however, doesn’t seem to be consistent across all of Cache Valley.
Mark Fjeldsted, who owns The Sportsman, said their store does decorate for the holiday season later in the month of November and they don’t go all out.
“We don’t do it before Halloween,” Fjeldsted said. “We slowly bring it out as time allows, and hopefully it gets done before Thanksgiving.”
However, USU sophomore Ella Rose Leonelli said early Christmas decorations disappoint her.
“I am a strong believer that Christmas decorations should not go up before December,” Leonelli said. “There is no need for Christmas decorations to go up any earlier.”
Anderson and Brown said they expect 2021 to have smaller offerings for the holiday season because of the pandemic. Leonelli may get her wish after all.
“It’s difficult getting product in here despite having ordered it a year in advance,” Anderson said. “This year we’re doing way less promotion than we have in the past. Out of all our stuff we ordered for our holiday event, maybe three out of every 20 is here right now.”
Regardless of supply shortages, both businesses managers said they are doing their best to bring in the holiday spirit.
-Jared.Adams@usu.edu