It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, everywhere you go – and that’s a problem.It is still October, and Halloween is right around the corner. But at almost every retail store you visit, there is nothing but Christmas promotions.

Call me Ebenezer Scrooge, but bah, humbug on early Christmas promotions.

When I pulled up to Garden Ridge this past weekend, propped up right in front of the entrance was a gargantuan snow globe with everybody’s favorite fat man inside giving yuletide greetings.

I cringed when I saw this, not because I don’t like Christmas – I do – but because I knew, before taking a single step into the store, I would be bombarded with different Santa figurines, Christmas trees and whatever else people use to decorate their homes.

I was right. The entire right-hand side of the store was packed with Douglas firs, tinsel, stockings and wooden elves as far as the eye could see. And to my left was a little bin of pumpkins for those who wanted to decorate for All Hallow’s Eve.

I might have been able to look past the excessive Christmas decor had the store not been playing Christmas carols.

I understand why stores do this type of stuff; it brings in the money, and I don’t find fault with that. It’s commercialism and there is no way to hide that – it is the society we live in today. My problem is that by doing so, these stores are neglecting my two favorite holidays, Halloween and Thanksgiving.

Here I am, still going places, trying to piece together the remaining parts of my Halloween costume, and all any store will give me is a measly two to three rows worth of merchandise. Now unless you’re going as Kris Kringle – I’m not – that’s a problem.

America is already a rushed society, so why do we want to rush past a couple of days where you can actually relax, have fun and spend time with family and friends to periods where many people go outside theirs budget trying to please loved-ones?

Christmas may be the “most wonderful time of the year,” but it is two months away, and there are at least three major holidays – Halloween, Thanksgiving and Hanukkah – before Christmas arrives.

So to all you Christmas-lovers, give it a rest until after Nov. 23, when Thanksgiving is behind us, or go tell it on a mountain where I can’t hear you.

Features editor Jeff Eskew is a senior broadcast journalism major from China Spring.