{"id":4113,"date":"2013-10-02T14:03:05","date_gmt":"2013-10-02T18:03:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=4113"},"modified":"2013-10-16T17:27:25","modified_gmt":"2013-10-16T21:27:25","slug":"inside-aurora-seasonal-blur","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/inside-aurora-seasonal-blur\/","title":{"rendered":"INSIDE AURORA: Seasonal Blur"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Scott Johnston<\/strong><\/p>\n

I might be dating myself, but I remember back when just by looking around you knew what time of year it was.
\nHearts and roses in the stores? Must be getting close to Valentine\u2019s Day. Ads for chocolate rabbits? Easter must be coming.
\n\u2018She deserves a break\u2019 brunch specials posted? Sounds like Mother\u2019s Day.
\nNow, even after referring to a calendar, you can never tell exactly which season it is.
\nThe recent back-to-school sales, which should have taken over the August calendar, were overshadowed by the appearance of Hallowe\u2019en merchandise. And now if you want to find anything to do with Halloween, you have to work your way through all the increasing shelf and display space devoted to Christmas.
\nOf course, it\u2019s not the average citizen who is pushing to get an early jump on the various seasons (except for that neighbor of yours who never takes down his Christmas lights, but he doesn\u2019t count), it\u2019s the retailers.
\nI appreciate the fact that times are tight, and that from a store owner\u2019s perspective, the sooner people can start being guilted into parting with their money for some consumer-oriented holiday (which face it, they all are now), the better\u2026but it\u2019s the blurring of the seasons that annoys me.
\nI like to look forward to, focus on, and enjoy one event at a time, then move on.
\nLet\u2019s look at October. Now that it\u2019s here I love getting into the Hallowe\u2019en spirit; decorations, people dressed in costumes, scary movies on TV, jack \u2018o lanterns on porches, and the crunch of autumn leaves underfoot as trick-or-treaters prowl the neighbourhoods.
\nI don\u2019t want to start thinking about Christmas until at least November, and preferably not until after Remembrance Day, but you know the retailers won\u2019t allow me, or anyone else for that matter who may have a spare dollar in their pocket, that luxury.
\nSo, instead of being able to think about all things Hallowe\u2019en, I\u2019m starting to be distracted by Christmas cards in the stores, pre-December sale fliers in the mail, and window displays full of snow.
\nThe latter is especially confusing when it\u2019s not even cold enough to have put the lawn mower or patio furniture away for the winter.
\nAnd you just know that stores will be starting to play Christmas carols any day now.
\nAlthough most obvious this time of year, this isn\u2019t just a Christmas occurrence. This seasonal creep happens year-round, with vendors and other interested parties reminding us earlier and earlier of some future occasion.
\nMaybe it would be easier all around if the retailers just did away with the pretense of finishing up with one holiday before starting the next, and just merged them all.
\nI can see it now; Christmas trees adorned with Thanksgiving turkeys, Valentine\u2019s hearts entwined with menorahs, groundhogs pulling sleighs, skeletons sporting New Year\u2019s Eve hats and noisemakers, Remembrance Day poppies shaped like St. Patrick\u2019s Day clovers, Easter bunnies wearing Santa outfits\u2026.
\nThe possibilities are endless.
\nIn fact, I\u2019m surprised the retailers haven\u2019t thought of this already, as there are a number of benefits. For example, not only would they no longer end up with stock left over after each holiday, but they wouldn\u2019t even have to bother exchanging the merchandise on the shelves. They could just leave everything out year-round.
\nAfter all, a Father\u2019s Day tie decorated with spooky bats and black cats can be left out for sale after mid-June, with October only a few months away around the seasonal corner.<\/p>\n

Feel free to e-mail Scott at: machellscorners@gmail.com<\/em><\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Scott Johnston I might be dating myself, but I remember back when just by looking around you knew what time of year it was. Hearts and roses in the stores? Must be getting close to Valentine\u2019s Day. Ads for chocolate rabbits? Easter must be coming. \u2018She deserves a break\u2019 brunch specials posted? Sounds like […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-14l","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-28 01:48:41","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4113\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}