WATCH: It’s mid-November but it’s already beginning to look a lot like Christmas. It’s a season that seems to start earlier every year. Isabelle Raghem reports.
At Sweet Delights in Oak Bay, Christmas displays are up in their windows.
“I love when [kids] smush their faces and you’ll see these little hands and nose prints because they’ve been watching the little hockey players go round and round,” says shop owner Barb Marquardt.
With a little over a week before the Oak Bay Christmas Festival on Nov. 26, lights went up on Thursday in Oak Bay.
“Everyone wants the biggest light display it’s getting busy for sure,” says James Anderson, owner of Light Right.
The light installing company says they’ve been in Christmas mode for months.
“November 12th is when we get really really busy but we started installing at the end of September and it’s been pretty consistent ever since.”
If you feel like the season comes earlier and earlier every year, you aren’t the only one.
“Ten to fifteen years ago there was a social norm that we didn’t start Christmas until December 1st, I think that’s long gone,” says UVic Professor of Marketing and Entrepreneurship, Brock Smith.
He says he’s noticed the season starting sooner every year, what he calls the “Christmas creep.”
“In Canada because Thanksgiving happens before Halloween and Halloween is already a few weeks ago there’s not a lot of stoppage to keep retailers to go into November saying oh hey let’s get on this bandwagon quickly.”
At Sweet Delights, it’s about something a lot sweeter:
“It’s not about the retailing, the products. It’s the giving and joy of the whole holiday,” says Marquardt.
Light Right says they’re booked solid until mid-December but welcome bookings now for next year.
Isabelle Raghem
