THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, December 1, 1995 TAG: 9511290156
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY ELIZABETH THIEL, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 128 lines
HALLOWEEN CANDY WAS hardly digested. Thanksgiving turkey was barely a burp.
Already this fall in Chesapeake and parts beyond, merchants had turned their attention to Christmas and the promise of big profits.
With holiday decorations, seasonal music and the arrival of Santa Claus at many area malls in mid-November, retailers sought to put shoppers in the giving mood early.
It's a trick of the trade that gets more apparent each year. Merchants say they are hanging holiday decorations earlier and earlier to capitalize on the lucrative winter season.
``It seems like it has been a trend for the past couple of years with the large retailers to decorate for the holidays before Thanksgiving,'' said Kimberly A. Wagner, marketing director for Greenbrier Mall, where festive adornments, such as glittering white lights and a giant wreath, went up the day after Halloween this year.
``People are shopping earlier,'' Wagner said.
Some shoppers, however, say they find it difficult to enjoy the fall holidays when the stores are rushing the Christmas season.
``I don't like it, because it just seems that Christmas becomes more and more commercialized,'' said Diane W. Torrech, 37, a Greenbrier resident. ``We totally miss the whole meaning of Thanksgiving.
``We can't get through one thing without something else crowding in.''
Church leaders are worried about what they see as an erosion of the religious spirit that is the foundation of the holidays.
``My fear is that the holiness, the spirituality, has been taken away from the season and has been replaced by a holiday spirit,'' said the Rev. Paul D. Moore, retired pastor of the Woodland Heights Baptist Church. ``Sort of a hip-hip, hooray, come and spend your money.''
Shopping, parties and other secular holiday activities are making it difficult for people to find time for worship activities, Moore said.
``The spirituality is being set aside, crowded, with Sunday openings, big sales,'' he said.
The Rev. James C. Griffin, pastor of the Church of St. Therese in Western Branch, said he and other religious leaders find themselves preaching a countercultural message this time of year. They must urge churchgoers to avoid getting distracted by the mass messages of holiday consumerism, and instead to stay in touch with the religious nature of the season.
``It is a little difficult,'' Griffin said. ``But at the same time, our churches are full at Christmas, because of what we do teach.
``It becomes a season of prayer for churchgoers, and for nonchurchgoers, it becomes one of the only times of the year'' when they migrate back to worship, he said.
``There's nothing wrong in giving gifts, and there's nothing wrong with being with families and friends,'' Griffin said. ``I would just suggest that people also stop and give thanks with each other, as much as they give gifts, or else it just becomes a commercial thing, and not religious at all.''
Retailers say their push to expand the holiday shopping season is in response to consumer habits.
There is a ``very big demand for things to be out early,'' said Diane K. Fox, manager of Matthews Hallmark in Greenbrier Mall, where some Christmas ornaments went on sale in July, and holiday greeting cards hit the racks in mid-October.
``They (customers) expect for things to be out, because a lot of people have to send things overseas,'' Fox said.
Patricia D. Shearer, owner of Elegant Clutter, a crafts and collectibles store on Battlefield Boulevard, said people have been shopping there for Christmas gifts all year. But she noticed that her sales began to pick up as early as October.
``They're trying to lessen the impact of all that money coming out all at one time,'' Shearer said.
The consumer demand is one store owners can't afford to ignore. Christmas sales can make up as much as 50 percent of a small retailer's annual profits, according to the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce.
The need to milk the season was even more urgent this year, as experts nationally predicted a slump in holiday sales.
Merchants have gone to extraordinary lengths, from elaborate decorations and sales to special perks for shoppers, such as free gift-wrapping.
At Greenbrier Mall, Santa arrived Nov. 11 and has been on duty every day during mall hours.
Crews spent five after-hours nights the week before Halloween erecting the mall's decorations - 200-pound shooting stars, long strands of lights and a 1,000-pound wreath, all suspended from the vaulted ceiling. There's also a special set for Santa at the mall's center court.
All told, there are 41,500 white lights throughout the mall and 1,100 ornaments on the wreath and the trees ringing Santa's set. Most customers are blithely unaware of the exertions made to put them in the holiday spirit.
``You come to the mall, you see the decorations, and you really don't think about the amount of work that goes into it,'' Greenbrier Mall's Wagner said.
Few retailers go to such lengths. But most at least hang a few lights or scatter some poinsettias.
So far, the effort appears to be paying off. Chesapeake retailers seem to be bucking the national predictions of gloom for the sales season, said Donna L. Girardot, executive director of the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce's Chesapeake division.
The amount of shopping traffic last weekend, considered the busiest buying weekend of the year, was up significantly for city businesses, Girardot said. ILLUSTRATION: [Cover, Color photo]
DREAMING OF A "GREEN CHRISTMAS"
There is a ``very big demand for things to be out early,'' said
Diane K. Fox, above, manager of Matthews Hallmark, where some
Christmas ornaments went on sale in July. ``It seems like it has
been a trend for the past couple of years with the large retailers
to decorate for the holidays before Thanksgiving,'' said Kimberly A.
Wagner, right, marketing director for Greenbrier Mall.
``It just seems that Christmas becomes more and more
commercialized,'' said Diane W. Torrech, 37, a Greenbrier resident.
``We totally miss the whole meaning of Thanksgiving.''
Staff photos, including cover, by MORT FRYMAN
Debbie Hutt pauses with her son, Lee, in front of a Christmas shop
at Greenbrier Mall.
Holiday decorations already adorn Greenbrier Mall.
Staff photos by MORT FRYMAN
Religious ornaments at a mall store remind shoppers of the reason
for the season.
by CNB