comments_image Comments  5 Ways Companies Are Already Ruining
the Holidays  Why do we have to start thinking about Christmas
in freaking October?  Photo Credit: shutterstock.com   Depending
on whom you ask, the holiday season is either a time for giving
thanks for life’s many blessings and basking in family
togetherness (your mom) or the period between September and
December when retailers try to maximize their profits for the
fiscal year (business owners).  Of course the holiday season is
really both of things at once: a symbol of wholesomeness and
greed, giving and getting, joy and emptiness. Just like
grandma’s cooking, it is both good and bad. Always has been,
probably always will be.  But it does seem like every year
holiday consumerism ratchets up just a little bit more. Somewhat
paradoxically, the recent downturn in the economy may have made
things worse than ever in that regard; rather than just
accepting that Americans have less money with which to buy Bratz
dolls, retailers have responded by going t