Too Early for Christmas Music!

Some radio stations have already made the switch to Christmas music, with three weeks left still until Thanksgiving.

Writer Jeffrey Kaczmarczyk (twitter @ArtsWriter) has an article over on mlive:

MLive.com - Too early for Christmas music on the radio? Readers, listeners sound off

Some comments from a person featured in the article:

"This ruins the joy Christmas brings," ... "By the time Christmas is here the wonder and joy of the sounds of the season has already lost its magic and it becomes annoying. I will NOT be listening to these stations so I can enjoy the season when it gets here."

Writer Cort Gatliffin has an article over at yellowhammernews.com:

yellowhammernews.com - (Vote) When is it acceptable to start listening to Christmas music?


Some of his readers sounded off with comments like these:

Christmas music simply can’t be appreciated appropriately before Thanksgiving,” ... “That’s just the way it is.

The poll on the article asks: When is it acceptable to start listening to Christmas music?
Results:

November 1 - 30.1%
December 1 - 10.0%
After Thanksgiving - 52.1%
All year - 7.8%

There's nothing wrong with Christmas music really.
It's wonderful music, and honestly if you love it and want to listen to it all year go for it.

But when everyone suddenly kicks off the Christmas music right after Halloween, the message is that we'd rather skip the season of Giving Thanks.

Respect The Turkey!

Give Thanks... for veggies!

These turkeys sure know what to really be thankful for this season!

Stores Closed on Thanksgiving

Quite a few stores are now joining the march to stay closed on Thanksgiving!

Thanks to some successful facebook campaigns like Say No To Shopping on Thanksgiving and the popular pledge badge that's been going around, stores are starting to listen!



Great to see such a community supporting the retail workers and helping them get a well deserved day off.

Over at Forbes they are compiling a running list:

Forbes: Costco, Publix Lead Charge As Stores Refuse To Open On Thanksgiving Day

Here's the list from the Forbes article. Respect the Turkey! :)

American Girl
Barnes & Noble
Bed
Bath and Beyond
BJ’s Wholesale Club
Burlington Coat Factory
Costco
Crate & Barrel
Dillard’s
DSW
GameStop
Hobby Lobby
HomeGoods
Home Depot
Jo Ann Fabrics
Lowe’s
Marshalls
Nordstrom
Petco
Pier 1
Publix
RadioShack
Sam’s Club
Sur La Table
Talbots
T.J. Maxx

Happy Thanksgiving Canada!

Monday, October 13th is Canada's day of Thanksgiving.

Their Thanksgiving is very similar to ours, with big dinners and watching football on TV, just any day through the weekend.

It falls on the same day as Columbus Day in the US.

Writer Zoe Mintz of the IBTimes has a great write up of some of the differences between America's and Canada's Turkey Day.



Our favorite part?

However, unlike American Thanksgiving, Canadians don't typically see the holiday as a kickoff event to Christmas shopping.

Read the full article over at ibtimes: Canadian Thanksgiving 2014: 3 Ways The Holiday Differs From America’s Turkey Day.

You can find Zoe Mintz on Twitter at @ZoeMintz and as always we're at @RespectTurkey

Thanskgiving Movies

This upcoming Thanksgiving you'll probably see mostly Christmas movies on the TV already, but there are some good movies out there about Thanksgiving time!

John R. Kennedy over at Global News writes:

To get into the spirit of the holiday, we’ve cooked up a list of 10 movies and TV specials set during Thanksgiving. They’re not all great movies (you mean some are turkeys? – ed.) but they’re bound to resonate with anyone spending time with relatives and pumpkin pies.

Our favorites: Free Birds, and of course Charlie Brown's Thanskgiving.


Head over to globalnews.ca to read the full story: 10 movies and specials to watch this Thanksgiving

You can follow John R. Kennedy on twitter at @GlobalJRK and as always we're at @RespectTurkey.

Christmas coming earlier: More retailers now count season's length in months, not weeks

Over at the Omaha World Herald, writer Barbara Soderlin has yet another article in the news about stores opening earlier this year.


(from: omaha.com - Christmas coming earlier: More retailers now count season's length in months, not weeks

Probably the best line from the article:

What’s creepier than all the Halloween masks on display?

The “Christmas creep” shoppers will see as holiday promotions and sales arrive in stores even earlier this year.

(from: omaha.com - Christmas coming earlier: More retailers now count season's length in months, not weeks

Read the rest of Barbara's article here.

You can follow her on Twitter at @barbarasoderlin, and as always we're at @respectturkey.

WSJ: Expect Retailers to Open Even Earlier This Thanksgiving

Andria Cheng at the Wall Street Journal wrote up an article about how retailers are expected to be open for a full day of shopping on Thanksgiving Day.

While retailers aren’t expected to announce any special Thanksgiving hours until the second half of October or into November, “it’s inevitable to see them open all day or even earlier than last year,” Joel Bines, managing director and co-leader of consulting firm AlixPartners’ retail practice, said in an interview.

(from: WSJ: Expect Retailers to Open Even Earlier This Thanksgiving)

Even though retailers are planning to make people work on Thanksgiving Day, it may not even do much to boost their sales.

To be sure, opening early on Thanksgiving may do little more than ruin employees’ turkey feasts.

Last year, retailers from Wal-Mart and Best Buy to Macy's and J.C. Penney opened stores or kicked off sales events earlier on Thanksgiving. Still, record Black Friday weekend sales didn’t salvage what turned out to be a disappointing holiday season.

“With the soft sales outlook, we do anticipate a few earlier openings” on Thanksgiving, or even a few more all-day openings, Mr. Johnson of Customer Growth said. “However, there is a law of diminishing returns,” and stores risk cannibalizing their December sales.

(from: WSJ: Expect Retailers to Open Even Earlier This Thanksgiving)

So even though some retailers will admit that shopping on Thanksgiving doesn't help their sales, and shopping too early can actually harm their December sales, they're all going to go through with it.

You can follow Andria Cheng on Twitter at: @andriacheng and as always we're at @respectturkey