From the Straight Dope: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/...d.php?t=438733
Warning, bad language!
I start this thread on Oct 2: the Halloween stuff started appearing in the supermarkets just after Labor Day (when Halloween is still almost 2 months away!) and already they're selling pumpkins (conceding that for some it may be fall decorating rather than Halloween-specific, you also see cornstalks and bales of hay, but already just down the street from us one family already had carved jackolanterns on their stoop on 10.01) and already the candy displays are in full swing. Then of course no sooner is Halloween in the rear-view mirror than the stores get out their Santa grottos and the sound of sleighbells and carols fills the air. Does this bug you? I don't know if it necessarily bugs me but when I was a kid (1960s) I don't remember the adults making this kind of to-do about Halloween (my parents were like I was too old to trick-or-treat after I was 10!) and I'd have been surprised if the Halloween goods were on sale more than 2 weeks in advance of the date; and as for Christmas nobody thought of jumping the Thanksgiving gun (maybe the merchandise was in the stores before Thanksgiving but the store decorations and Santa waited until afterward). Do you think this holiday creep is going too far or has it always been this way ?