Holiday Creep: Chicken or the Egg

Everywhere you look, it is already Christmas.  And...it is only early November.  We hear folks lamenting this trend as the Holidays creep up earlier and earlier each year.  The stores are already carrying holiday merchandise, muncipialities are already hanging lights on the town square, and consumers are actively ticking off items on their buying lists.

The question:  Are marketers "forcing" this holiday stuff on us early to garner more purchases or do we as consumers actually "want" an early Christmas?  I'm not sure, but one annecdote that lends some credence that we "want" Holiday creep is this chart around Starbucks Holiday Red Cups.






Clearly there's a HUGE surge of consumers across the country who are clamoring for the red cups. "When are the red cups coming?" "What do the red cups look like?"

Questions like that are being asked and - to me - that indicates people are passionate about the cups and are primed for their arrival.  Does that mean we want to eradicate Thanksgiving from the calendar and just have a two-month long Christmas celebration?  Not sure.  What about you?