Christmas in October

So let me just start off by saying that it is way too early for Christmas. I don't really consider it the Christmas season until after Thanksgiving. And yet, since I work in the retail industry, I get exposed to the Christmas hype way, way too early. But I love it. Christmas is my favorite time of the year and I really excited as soon as it starts to feel like Christmas.

So about two weeks ago I walked into Rite Aid by my house and lo and behold, they had Christmas wrapping paper for sale. (For all the overachievers that wrap their Christmas presents in October, I guess.) Since then, more and more Christmas stuff has begun to find it's way into the stores: wrapping paper, decorations, fake Christmas trees. I'm still not sure who buys this stuff before Halloween, but that's not the point.

The icing on the cake was yesterday at work. The week after Halloween, Blockbuster does it's big "Holiday Reset." We move all our product around, change all the signs to Christmas-themed signage, put out tables of novelty gifts (this years it's Snuggies, Star Wars gifts, and, of course, Silly Bandz), and create three full bays of the old, classic Christmas movies on our New Release wall. So yesterday I pulled out the signage from the back office and began to sort through it to prepare myself for the reset starting Sunday. This years signs are light blue with white snowflakes and red ornaments hanging down that look like DVD's. They are so festive and Christmasy and I got very excited and spread them all over the floor in the store and jumped up and down and then had to put them all away again. So I thought it would be appropriate today to share with you my top ten favorite things about Christmas:

1. Lights. I love Christmas lights, especially the white ones. And now that it's getting dark earlier, they'll be even more visible.

2. Snow. Not completely Christmas related, but I love snow. They are predicting a very snowy winter this year and I'm hoping they are right.

3. Cold weather. I love bundling up and going out into the icy weather. I love coming home to a warm apartment and cuddling up with a cup of tea.

4. The bell ringers. I'm like Pavlov's dog in this regard. The Salvation Army bell ringers are such an integral part of Christmas for me that I get excited just to hear them.

5. Buying presents. I love to get things for people and then watch them open them.

6. All the people. I love the hustle and bustle of the city at Christmastime, everyone rushing around in the cold and hurrying in and out of stores.

7. The holiday pay. Christmas, New Years and the second half of New Year's Eve are time and a half pay for us.

8. Business at work. I love it when it's busy at work and people come hurrying in to pick up movies to take home to the family.

9. Egg nog. You didn't think I was going to forget about the food, did you? Egg nog is manna from heaven.

10. Green bean casserole. Thanksgiving and Christmas are usually the only times that I get to have this.

Now I'm just waiting for the Christmas tree to go up on the Space Needle and the first snow and then it will really be Christmas!