Renowned window dresser Simon Doonan (and author of Confessions of a Window Dresser) is used to having New Yorkers cry out in despair as they pass by his efforts to create a stunning holiday window display. Customers routinely exclaim that surely it can't be time for Christmas already -- can it? But Simon says that it is a myth that retailers start putting up Christmas decorations earlier each year. For the last 30 years, all holiday decorating in the retail world has run on the exact same timetable. So, why not relax and enjoy the inevitable?
Here's how the season unfolds: First come the holiday ornament shops. Some gauche folks unveil these bauble-filled boutiques right after Labor Day, but most opt for the middle of October. Next we have the interior decorations, the festooning of which takes place around Halloween at some Manhattan department stores. Others, demonstrating a certain chic restraint, usually wait until at least Nov. 2 or 3 before decking their halls.
Which leads us to my personal favorite: yes, it's window time! The first two weeks of November, stores all over town, both trendy and otherwise, unveil their yuletide dioramas. Rare is the shopkeeper who makes his garland-toting elves wait till after Black Friday — that's what our be-suited bosses call the day after Thanksgiving — before they can unfurl their tinsel.
Given the essential consistency of this schedule, why do the holidays come as such a shock? Why do otherwise sentient beings suffer from the delusion that staple-gun-wielding window dressers are advancing upon them with premature malevolence? In the past I chalked this up to good, old-fashioned denial: fending off the headache-inducing obligations and demands of the season is a fairly universal impulse.
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More good news: the commercial aspect of Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa is, in its own way, entirely meaningful. Retailers depend on people to buy mountains of gifts for their loved ones; the resulting fourth-quarter revenues ensure their very survival and create jobs. Additionally, gift buying is a legitimate feel-good pastime that involves empathy and creativity, connoisseurship and self-expression. A trip to SoHo or NoLIta can be every bit as visually stimulating and thought-provoking as a schlep around the Chelsea art galleries.
So stop trying to hold back the holidays. Relax! Get your kvetching and your spiritual psychotherapy out of the way and then surrender to the fun and distraction of the holidays. And yes, there will be damage to your wallet. But look on the bright side: the window displays are free.
Ok, we give in! Let the holiday season (and free shipping deals) begin!
