Is it too Early for Christmas Songs?

Halloween is over and our next major holiday in the United States is Thanksgiving. My daughters grew up saying that we need to respect the turkey and not get too excited about Christmas until after the giant eat-a-thon. Now they are changing their tunes and think it is fine to play Christmas music a little earlier.

The day after Halloween, the Disney resorts pulled down all their pumpkin decorations and re-themed their resorts for Christmas. On November first I started getting ads for Black-Friday specials and encouraged to start Christmas shopping. It seems that everyone is eager for the largest holiday of the year.

So is it too early for Christmas songs? My personal thought is I have to restrict how many times I hear certain songs that become popular at the end of the year. The most popular Christmas song is Mariah Carey's "All I want for Christmas is you." It turns out that it is also the most hated holiday song. I fall into the later category and want to limit how many times I hear it.

One advantage I see with starting the holiday song list early is it gives me time to learn more Christmas songs on my guitar. I generally take a few weeks to memorize one and if I wait until the month of December, I never really learn them. That being said, I have to like the songs I learn because I play them so many times.

So what do you think? Is it time to play those old familiar favorites or should we wait another month? Let me know your thoughts.

Cyber Monday and the Wrong Flight

I am on a flight today headed back to Salt Lake City. I picked today to fly trying to avoid the tail-end of Thanksgiving travel. I also knew I could get some important work done on the flight with the help of in-flight Internet. I'm glad I planned to work as the plane's entertainment service isn't working. They've reset the system 3 times now without success. It is kind of annoying but it means I can focus more of my attention on getting work done. Sometimes you pick the right flight where there are empty seats next to you or something amazing happens. Today is not that day.

Today also happens to be Cyber Monday when all of the online stores have their biggest sales. Once again my e-mail inbox received a flood of messages encouraging me to spend money on potential Christmas gifts. Once again I am not really interested in spending money. It would probably be a good idea to come up with a list of gifts for those on my list before Black Friday and Cyber Monday roll around. Then I could take advantage of some of the deals. Fortunately the discounts seem to stick around up until the big day. Then everything really goes on sale.

One sale I knew would happen today is that from the airlines. I received a special e-mail from both Alaska and Delta as those are the two carriers I use the most. I'm sure I also got one from Southwest but skipped over it as I have not been flying them recently. Don't get me wrong, they are a great airline with spectacular deals. I just prefer nonstop flights and Southwest seems to have multiple legs whenever I want to go somewhere. That doesn't mean I don't check their schedule first as it serves as a great baseline price.

I also received a lot of e-mails from hotel chains that I tend to use for business travel. There are some great deals out there. Unfortunately, for my personal travel I have been scouring AirBnB for most of my overnight accommodations recently. For about the same price as a hotel, I can get a living room and a kitchen. It is only business trips where I use hotels any more. Since the company is paying for it, I don't mind staying in hotels and eating out at restaurants.

Speaking of business travel I should probably get back to work. There is a lot going on this week and I need to get ready for all of the events. Then I can wind down for the Christmas break.

Does Black Friday Still Exist?

This morning I rode up the chairlift with someone that works for a large online retailer where I asked about Black Friday and if it still exists because people do so much online shopping. To help illustrate the point, I got an e-mail on Monday and ordered a expensive ski jacket online at a huge discount. It arrived today and I didn't have to wake up early or stand in a line. In fact, I went skiing on Black Friday and had an excellent day. The person we rode the chair with said that her company had coupons that didn't get sent until Black Friday. She expects it will have more of an effect for Cyber Monday, which is where most online retailers see the largest number of purchases for a given day.

I watched the news last night before heading to bed and they said a lot of people were out shopping but we didn't have the crowds as has been seen in years past. The shoppers interviewed enjoyed being able to find great deals without having to deal with large crowds. I didn't see any stories of women and children being trampled by large and unruly crowds. I'm happy about that.

My wife and I have long since given up on quantity over quality when it comes to Christmas gifts. We spend a lot of time thinking about what people really want for that special day of the year. That has not always been the case as young kids care more about the number of packages they get to open, not about if they want what they are receiving. This year we know exactly what we will get for each of our kids. While we could wake up early on Black Friday and try to save a few dollars, ultimately it is easier to just go to our trusted sources for what we are looking for. After all, time is money and a great deal on something you don't plan to buy is worthless.

The Biggest Shopping Day of the Year

Some people think the biggest shopping day of the year is the day after Thanksgiving or Black Friday. Actually it is the day after Christmas. That is when people bring back the wrong size gifts and exchange them for the right size. It is also the day that everything goes on sale and you can find a great deal on something you may have wanted for Christmas but didn't get.

Naturally I try to avoid being anywhere near a store on this day. I don't want to get trampled. I also know that today is one of the busiest ski days of the year and so I even avoided skiing at a ski resort. Once again, I don't want to get trampled. Instead I grabbed my youngest son and we went for a hike . . . with our skis on. We headed out just North of Alta ski area and headed up Grizzly Gulch for a morning of hiking and bottomless powder. We had quite a nice time and avoided the crowds.

After skiing there are some things I needed to pick up. I recently bought a new truck and certain items will make the pick-truck more useful. My oldest son showed up at the house shortly after I did and was more than happy to help me spend money. Remember that I didn't want to go anyplace as the stores can be chaotic. Instead we looked online. I started with a bed cover as I hate shoveling snow and don't want to have to shovel it out of the bed of my truck. I found one online before Christmas but had trouble finding it for the same price after. My son suggested Amazon. Sure enough, a name-brand cover that I wanted was even less expensive than I had seen it previously.

Next I needed to get a ham radio for the new vehicle. I had done my research several weeks ago and went to my usual source: Ham Radio Outlet. I loaded up my virtual shopping cart with the radio, antenna, and antenna mount. Then my son suggested I look at Amazon. This time, the radio cost significantly more and so I stuck with my original source.

Amazon has great prices on certain things and can be a great place to shop. Sometimes there are better prices elsewhere and so it pays to do a bit of looking around. Fortunately it doesn't require driving to a different store or even any walking. You can do it all from the comfort of your couch.

Black Friday

Tomorrow is Black Friday and the Christmas shopping season officially begins. As for me, I will refrain from shopping tomorrow. Instead I plan to spend the day outside and will officially be supporting REI's #OptOuside movement. I will ski in the morning and then spend the afternoon on my sailboat. No, the lifts are not running in Utah and so I will have to hike up the hill in order to get some turns in.

Unfortunately I have two daughters that work retail and both are being asked to come to work this evening even though it is Thanksgiving. They will come home well after midnight and then have to head back to work tomorrow to work the Black Friday specials. So if you are fighting the crowds in the stores tomorrow, please be nice to the salespeople. They are someone's son or daughter who don't get to spend time with the family so you can get a good shopping deal.

Cyber Monday in Tokyo

Once again I find myself in Tokyo, Japan. This is the fifth trip this year and just happened to occur over Cyber Monday. Due to air travel and crossing the international date line at just the right time, my Cyber Monday was all of about 4 hours long. That means I didn't really get the chance to partake in all of the online shopping deals. I'm not really sure I missed much as most of my Christmas shopping is already done. However I am starting to realized the breadth of deals being offered online at this time of the year.

My e-mail inbox filled up with a number of advertisements related to travel deals and I feel I may have missed some of the best prices of the year. I know my dad took advantage of the low airfare as he forwarded me a message for a trip he will be taking with my mom in February. For someone that commutes weekly between my home in Salt Lake City and my office in the San Francisco Bay Area, I'm wondering if it is too late to cash in on some cheap flights.

I also enjoy taking my wife on quick vacations every quarter and wonder if there were some spectacular destination hotels having jaw-dropping deals. I already have my long weekends away booked for the first two quarters of the year but am vacillating on what to do for the third one. Perhaps I will log into some travel sites and see if there are any great deal on Alaskan cruises or a trip to Hawaii. Holiday deals associated with Black Friday used to be restricted to toys and things that could be wrapped to put under a Christmas tree. Now everything goes on sale and can be had a discounted price. What a crazy world we live in.