Party planners must stay ahead about six months

Carrie Coppernoll

Published: July 1, 2008

The Fourth of July is Friday.

Friday.

Apparently this is irrelevant to holiday-related shopping. According to retail stores in the metro area, it's time to get ready for Christmas.

Yes, Christmas.

I hatched this brilliant plan at the beginning of the year, and it revolved around Fourth of July. My fiance and I chose blue as our wedding color. I would wait until the end of June to window shop at craft and big box stores throughout town. I'd check out all the red, white and blue merchandise and find the best blue items that could double as wedding decorations. Then, I'd buy up everything I needed on sale July 5. This was a shopping plan that could not fail.

But it did. Apparently I should have done this some time in March, when everyone else must have been shopping for Fourth of July items.

Saturday, I headed out to put my plan into action, my fiance in tow. We went to my favorite craft store first. I knew they'd have it all — blue ribbon, blue candles, little blue buckets. I could create some fabulous table centerpieces or ceremony decorations with whatever I could find in this store.

We walked in and saw half an aisle of American decorations. Nothing for sale caught my eye so we made our way to the next aisle. It was nothing but fall decorations. Gourds, scarecrows, leaves. I was looking for red, white and blue — not burnt orange, olive green and brown. The temperature was in the mid-80s outside. It's not time to think about fall decorations. I was still a little sweaty from being outside.

But the madness didn't end at the fall decorations. Oh, no. A few aisles back, there was garland and Christmas crafts and tree decorations. It was a winter wonderland. In June. Too bad our wedding colors weren't red and green. We would have decorations galore.

I hoped maybe it was just this one store that was confused about holiday shopping. Nope. Fourth of July decorations were hard to find nearly everywhere, but fall decorations were in full bloom. And a few places even had Christmas stuff for sale.

We still have so many holidays left before Christmas — Fourth of July, Labor Day, Halloween and Thanksgiving. Are we now skipping from Memorial Day to Christmas? No more fireworks, cook-outs, costumes or turkeys?

Well I, for one, enjoy all those holidays between the birth of our country and the birth of Jesus. I enjoy that half-a-year in between.

I also would have enjoyed the after-holiday sale, but apparently I missed it.

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