Personally, I prefer to wait until December to start celebrating the holidays.
Or at the very least, until sometime after Remembrance Day.
But what I prefer clearly doesn't matter: unofficially, there are two retailers who seem to be in charge of deciding when the holiday season begins each year, and both of them declared that today is the day!
The first retailer? Starbucks. The annual launch of their holiday beverage menu is a clear signal that the festivities are upon us, and I visited a Starbucks earlier today to enjoy my first holiday-beverage of the season.*
The store was decorated in holiday-red, and the baristas were all wearing red aprons.
The store manager was wearing green, glittery reindeer ears.
Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas is You" was playing in the store. Often.
One especially enthusiastic young woman was even wearing a red Ms. Claus outfit with white fake-fur trim. When I complimented it, she smiled and said, "You gotta have fun, right?"
Starbucks is definitely a holidays harbinger.
But there's another: John Lewis & Partners.
And today they released their 2021 holiday ad today, which is the other, definitive sign that the holidays have begun.
This year's ad is out of this world... literally. It's a cute spot, and it made me smile, although I'd argue it isn't as magical as some of their previous work. But only because some of their previous ads have been truly astounding, and the bar has been set extraordinarily high.
Still, it's absolutely worth a watch.
So happy holidays, then?
Yeah... it still feels early to me.
* If you were wondering, it's a Quad-Venti, Non-Fat, Caramel Brule Latte with Whip. I know, I know... but I'm a former Starbucks partner, and the company made me a customization monster so now they have to live with that.
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