I saw this headline: "Christmas Creep Overtakes Two Holidays" and the first thing that came to mind was it had something to do with the Grinch. He's my definition of a Christmas creep.

Turns out they were talking about how early retailers have been trotting out the Christmas merchandise. I can probably remember when Thanksgiving was the big reveal day for Christmas stuff, and I can probably recall folks complaining about a few Christmas items showing up soon after Halloween merchandise was cleared from the shelves.

But according to the article Home Depot set out their Christmas decor items around Labor Day because once summer is over they claim they don't have much seasonal merchandise to fill the gap left by the charcoal grills and lawnmowers - mums and leaf blowers don't fill much space.

One person interviewed said she thought it was a good idea to put out the Christmas decorations so early because a person could spread their decor purchases out over a longer period of time. That's one way to look at it.

I don't really mind one way or the other because I enjoyed seeing the trees at Home Depot all lit up (I don't think our local store had them up as early as Labor Day). I don't spend money on Christmas decorations, so don't feel threatened by the commercialism.

One thing I do think about is that because most of this merchandise was made in China it was probably being shipped last spring some time. Somehow, that takes away a lot of the seasonal spirit for me.