A Big Jump on Christmas

So, I had been noticing that the Winter Holiday/Christmas decorations went up almost the day after Halloween this year. I wondered was this a new thing, but I thought I had just been unobservant in the past few years. I also have noticed that Christmas decorations are more prominent in stores right now than Thanksgiving decorations. Agian I wondered have I just missed something or is this really new this year. Then on Monday walking in my neighborhood I saw a Christmas tree already up in someone's living room (I assume it is fake).
I was beginning to wonder if anyone else was noticing this and then on a morning show on the for the local alternative station here the DJ's were commenting and lamenting this trend and then I came upon Lutheran Chicks brief rant/protest of this trend and so I can say it is not I who have missed something but indeed the world has gone mad.
One of the DJ's made the interesting observation that for most commercial enterprises (food being the exception of course) there just isn't a whole lot of money to be made on Thanksgiving.
Also, I remember when I was a teenager back in the 80's and Christmas decorations began going up in stores and public places the week of Thanksgiving, my Dad joked "Soon they be putting up Christmas decorations at Halloween." My family had a big laugh at the sheer lunacy of that. Well Dad you seem to have been a prophet. My wife tells me as I am relating to her the content of this post that in fact Christmas decorations went up just before Halloween this year.
So in this mad mad world of ours we have the season of Valentines day, Easter, Summer, Halloween (I saw Halloween decor in stores at the end of August), and Christmas.
Priceless!