Columnist Susan Snyder: It’s already a Christmas to November

Friday, Nov. 2, 2001 | 5:26 a.m.

Susan Snyder's column also appears Tuesdays and Fridays in the Las Vegas Sun. Reach her at snyder@lasvegassun.com or 259-4082.

It is wrong.

Two friends went into a grocery store last Sunday to buy a pumpkin-carving kit. A few of us were getting together to make jack-o'-lanterns that afternoon, in an effort to destroy only one kitchen with pumpkin innards and pool our first aid supplies.

Hey, those knives are sharp.

Anyhow, there were no pumpkin-carving tools to be had. The people at the grocery store said they had replaced most of the remaining Halloween stuff with Christmas items because Halloween "was over."

Over? On Oct. 28?

Christmas? On Oct. 28?

It is wrong.

For many of us Halloween is the "Drivers start your engines" for the holidays. These are the weeks and months on the Gregorian Kid Calendar that drag slower than any other period of time (except for the last week leading up to a family vacation at Disney World).

It starts with finding the costume that has mother approval but still is gross enough to impress your friends. There's picking through the night's trove of treats, setting aside the good ones you keep, tossing the ones that look suspicious and giving all the pencils, healthy raisins and Jolly Ranchers in weird flavors to your little sister.

Then it's time to break out the hot chocolate, rake some leaves and look forward to the feast to break a thousand waistlines.

And then, when it seems that the fourth Thursday of November will never end and the most anticipated annual event of childhood will never begin, Mom and Dad finally agree to hit the attic for the boxes of lights and plastic lawn reindeer.

The anticipation is almost as much fun as getting last year's tinsel all over the living room.

But we don't seem to do this any more. We're too impatient, or the economy needs the boost or something.

It's Halloween in September, Christmas in October, and by Dec. 20 we're breaking out the red hearts and lace doilies. Thanksgiving decorations, meanwhile, are marked down about two days after they're put out.

Some already sit abandoned in the bargain bins, and we're only four days into November.

It is wrong.

But maybe it's our own fault.

"Retailers wouldn't be taking up valuable retail space letting stuff sit out there for two months if it didn't sell. People must be buying it," said Michael Polcin, spokesman for Walgreen's corporate office in Illinois.

"We're a last-minute retailer, so we'll sell Halloween items right up through the 31st," Polcin said. "We don't really start pushing Christmas until Nov. 1."

Slow pokes.

This is why I never could have made it in retail. I'm just getting used to the idea of pilgrim candles and paper turkeys by Nov. 1. Christmas remains boxed in the guest room closet. The season's first ski day will happen before those boxes come out of hiding.

I have, however, finished about half of my Christmas shopping.

Oh, all right. A little more than half.

Oh for pete's sake, I give! I'm done, all right? Done!

Two gifts already are wrapped.

If only I remembered what is in them and who they are for.