How Early is Too Early for Christmas Lights?
No holiday season would be complete without the presence of colorful lights and festive decorations.
“I came out here and I was actually noticing that they had them up,” said Joni Greenwaldt, a shopper at the Shoppes at Arbor Lakes in Maple Grove. “So yeah, I like it. I love the holidays.”
For retailers, a late Thanksgiving means it’s the shortest holiday shopping season since 2013. But at Maple Grove’s Shoppes at Arbor Lakes, Christmas starts in mid-November.
“We definitely want to wait until after Halloween, but we want to give people enough time to be able to enjoy it, so usually a six-week window,” said Jennie Zafft, the marketing director at the Shoppes. She says the holiday decorations are all about creating the right atmosphere for shoppers.
“As online competition has become more serious, we want to give people an experience, and we feel like our decor is a huge part of that,” Zafft said.
Of course, people have varying opinions when it comes to putting out decorations well before Thanksgiving.
“I think right after Halloween is perfect,” said Case Branum, another shopper at the Shoppes. “I’m a Christmas guy, so decorating early is awesome.”
“Definitely before Thanksgiving is too early,” said Alyssa Boos, another shopper. “Cause then you kind of forget about Thanksgiving.”
‘Scrooge is out there’
Then there are those who detest the décor altogether, as Joni Greenwaldt discovered.
“We had somebody come and actually hook up a chain and rip out a tree in our front yard because it was lit up and it was beautiful,” Greenwaldt said. “So I think Scrooge is out there.”
Yet regardless of where you stand on the decoration debate, when it comes to Christmas music, the Shoppes have drawn a line in the sand.
“We usually wait to switch to the Christmas music just a couple days before Thanksgiving,” Zafft said. [Customers] will get feisty if you start the Christmas music too early, and I tend to agree on that front.”
