Holiday overload

BRITTANY CARAVA
FEATURE EDITOR
@brittcarava

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Fall is upon us, complete with pumpkin spice lattes, scarves and pumpkin patches.While I am just as excited as everyone about the holiday season, there are a few annoying things that I have seen lining the shelves as of late.

While this might not be groundbreaking, food companies have taken advantage of the obsession with pumpkin flavored items. Not only is there pumpkin bread mix for sale at Trader Joe’s, but there is also pumpkin yogurt, pumpkin macarons and pumpkin granola.

While these seem like logical pairings of flavors, there are also cinnamon flavored snap pea crisps, a popular healthy alternative to potato chips. I think that the flavoring of snack food has gotten a bit out of control at this point; savory snap pea crisps do not need to be flavored with cinnamon or other sweet seasonings associated with the holidays. This is just the beginning of holiday overload.

Apart from the unnecessarily flavored snack foods, there are already Christmas decorations, wrapping paper and holiday dresses lining the aisles of Costco. While I’m not sure about the operations of Costco, I do know that it is way too early to be planning for the holidays already. It feels like this semester has barely started, yet it is already well into October. In my opinion, I think we need to take it one holiday at a time. This is a lot less overwhelming and is easier to manage.

I know that there is a lot of stress surrounding the holidays because of the time crunch shoppers put themselves in as well as for financial reasons.However, I have hypothesized that maybe some people are so stressed because of the displays for upcoming holidays that the Targets and Costcos of the world tend to force down their throats. For instance, a shopper could just be putting away her Halloween decorations when there are already 6-foot Christmas trees for sale at the local CVS. This is what I consider holiday overload.

While some people enjoy planning ahead on their holiday shopping and decorating and weirdly flavored holiday snack foods, it is overwhelming and unnecessary.

With rushing through each holiday, we do not get to enjoy each occasion as they should be. Special occasions are special for a reason and by going over the top with the holiday merchandising, the spirit and the uniqueness of each occasion is lost.