I just have to get this off my chest…I went to the grocery store yesterday to get buns and burgers for a BBQ and there it was…Halloween. Right there in its full gory glory. Witches and goblins. Plastic pumpkins and scratchy scarecrows. And the candy, oh the candy.

Now don’t get me wrong. I LOVE Halloween. We go all out at our house with fun lighting and creepy sound effects. One year we accidentally fogged up several city blocks with an industrial fog machine supplied by a stadium pyrotechnics friend. That’s a story for another blog. But we start decorating at about 4pm on October 31st. It maintains the mystery for the neighborhood kids.

It just feels like every year the holiday craze starts earlier and earlier. Each year as we take down Christmas decorations, inevitably one child laments, “Why can’t it be Christmas every day?” And without getting into a deep religious discussion, my reply is the same as it is to “Why can’t it be my birthday every day, “ or “Why can’t it be summer vacation every day?”

Answer: Because if it were (fill in the blank) every day, it wouldn’t be so special. We have to have some plain old days to really appreciate the special days we have together.

So while I get that marketing is a very competitive field, I wonder if we could just have a few plain old days of shopping without being bombarded months in advance for the next giant holiday. I just wanted to get the hamburger buns and watermelon…no candy corn yet, please.

Whew, I got that off my chest. Now I’m gonna start working on my Thanksgiving centerpiece…just kidding!