*carves jack o' latern*

Just getting in the spirit, dude.

Skull on top!
Tree trimming party!

The city around here is already putting up christmas lights. I don't know what the fuck is wrong with people.

You need a couple of plastic pink flamingoes.

Yeah, it's hitting earlier than ever this year. Really fucking weird.

Wait, I think I figured it out -- it's yet another trick to keep people away from the polls. "Wait, today's not the election is it? Isn't it almost Christmas time? But then, how come I don't remember how the election turned out? Oh man, this is weird, I must be losing it, I think I'll just stay home today."

I don't know what I hate more about summer - the whole Christmas consumerism or the heat. It's great when you're suffering through mid 30's heat listening to "Dashing through the snow.....". My husband has a theory - the worse the economy, the earlier they start the whole Christmas schtick.

Ultra-Passive-Aggressive suggestion: leave a note saying that you're fine with the tree but could they remove it until the end of Ramadan.

Actually, the Halloween decorations sounds like the best idea ever. Skeletons and severed body parts!!

Oh oh oh
haunakkah bush it!

Commercially they want two seasons with an endless hail of crap starting after Labor Day until Easter, but they have until the end of the year to make most of the money.
'Twil not be the best of years.
We'll need more lights.

My aunt puts up her Christmas tree sometime around Halloween. Me, I like to put it up the day after Thanksgiving.

I'm in the day-after-Thanksgiving camp too - or as soon thereafter as possible. Definitely it's Christmastime by that Friday, though.

However, I did once host a full Thanksgiving in August, so make of this what you will.

I agree about the Halloween decorations. If offense is taken, just say that you did at as a Tim Burton tribute . . . ?

Are they completely serious? Because this seems like the kind of shit that kids do. We are talking college students, right? Because I can perfectly imagine the same thing happening in my suite.

I saw Christmas stuff in the department stores in September (!) when I was in Ireland.

Are you Jewish? Break out the apples, honey and round challah. L'Shana Tovah!

Yeah, college students. They're serious in that they view the tree as a decorative object. I don't think they're trying to be funny or ironic, and I'm almost positive they're not making any sort of commentary on the increasingly early Christmas marketing. Honestly, I think what went through their minds was "ooh, pretty! lights! a tree! ornaments!" without any thought to the fact that they were putting up a tree in September. I love the holiday season, but seriously, wait a couple of months.

Ultra-Passive-Aggressive suggestion: leave a note saying that you're fine with the tree but could they remove it until the end of Ramadan.

Hah. That's pretty good (and has the added advantage of reminding them that not everyone at this school, or in their suite, celebrates Christmas). The problem is that I'm South Asian, and so they'd assume I was completely serious in my offense.

Yeah, for me, I have no problem with the high-spirited hijinks aspect of the idea - but I wouldn't love it, because it would take the specialness away when it actually is time to have a Christmas tree. It'll just be part of the furniture.

SpiffyEmployer sent out our first holiday-themed marketing email yesterday. It was for corporate gifts, so, I think we're justified in sending it this early, (as they are large-volume orders and need a couple of months advance notice) but I'm sure it doesn't look that way to the 99.7% of the email list who have no interest in corporate gifts. Twitter is full of people saying we're soulless and terrible. Sigh.

unsurprising, you should so totally go the halloween-tree route. Get a bunch of tacky fake spiderwebs and plastic spiders and shit and just pwn the heck out of that thing. Then post pics and blog/twitter/myspace/livejournal/facebook the whole messy ordeal all over campus.

or not. but to me this sort of thing provides so many opportunities for victimless hooliganism and merry mayhem.

If it's not December, it's too early for Christmas anything. No ifs, not buts, no maybes. Well, maybe for corporate stuff that has to be ordered way in advance. Maybe. Maybe corporations should stay the fuck out of Christmas anyway.

Well, it starts early in my field, too. We've been planning our December holiday events since June, and now I have to write the interpretive plan. We've been ordering Christmas merch from the websites we need to get decorations and store merch from. It can't be helped - if you're in one of the industries that makes special stuff happen at Christmas, you have to be starting well ahead. But I don't want it in my personal life yet.