Christmas creep

Christmas creep has also been cited as a phenomenon in radio broadcasting.

Email marketers believe, however, that people are happy to see the Christmas Creep.

The 24/7 all-Christmas format has been generally successful due in large part to Christmas creep.

If Christmas creep annoys customers so much, why do retailers try to expand the season year after year?

But wary consumers call the practice of pushing the holiday buying spree earlier each year, "Christmas Creep."

New Yorkers may grit their teeth at this Christmas creep, but visitors delight in the lights and color.

This year, Christmas Creep goes turbo.

So the easiest argument retailers can use to counter complaints about Christmas creep is simply: Hey, we're only delivering what the customer wants.

By Halloween, expect your inbox to be quite spooked by the Christmas Creep.

It's not just for stores that barely have the decorative pumpkins out before they bring in the Santas, now the Christmas Creep is in your inbox.

Christmas creep is a merchandising phenomenon in which merchants and retailers exploit the commercialized status of Christmas by moving up the start of the holiday shopping season.

In retailing, holiday season creep, also known as Christmas creep refers to the earlier appearance of Christmas-themed merchandising, extending the holiday shopping season.

If you're sick of it all and want to trim back the Christmas Creep's visits from your inbox, make sure to be selective when giving out your main email address to companies.

In 2002-2003, Christmas creep accelerated markedly with retailers such as Walmart, J. C. Penney, and Target beginning their Christmas sales in October.

Christian singer/songwriter Brandon Heath voiced his feelings on Christmas creep in the song "The Day After Thanksgiving" (from his 2013 album "Christmas Is Here").

Cultural influences such as Christmas creep may have led to the winter season being perceived as beginning earlier in recent years, although high latitude countries like Canada are usually well into their real winters before the December solstice.

Due to the phenomenon of Christmas creep and the informal inclusion of Thanksgiving, the Christmas and holiday season has begun to extend earlier into the year, overlapping Halloween and Guy Fawkes Night in commonwealth countries.

A recent study from ShopperTrak forecast that holiday spending will rise a mere 2.4% during the 2013 season, and explained that, beyond the usual "Christmas creep," there are legitimate reasons why retailers are feeling extra pressure to woo shoppers early:

Christmas creep has been cited as a factor in the diminishing importance of Black Friday, as many retailers now spread out their promotions over the entire months of November and December rather than concentrate them on a single shopping day or weekend.

It is a move that has created passionate fans, as well as equally fervent detractors who say that 40 days of "White Christmas" and "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer" is Christmas creep at its worst.

While many consumers (ahem, me!) are annoyed by the never-ending Christmas creep and don’t particularly like thinking about winter or shopping for winter gifts while still wearing shorts, there are indications that many others have a more-the-merrier attitude when it comes to Christmas shopping.

Since the time the song was written the phenomenon of Christmas creep has resulted in the normal holiday season beginning much earlier than it once did, which has led to more recent recordings changing the line to, "But, Auntie Mame, it's one week from Thanksgiving Day now!"

If you've been appalled by this year's ever-earlier, commercial Christmas creep - the profusion of red and green that bleeds into our lives before the orange and black has even left the shelves - just wait until you see how quickly the war over the meaning of Christmas is heating up.