Some businesses started decorating for Christmas even before Halloween this year. Stores, big and small, around the United States have been promoting Christmas early. But, why do they do this?

Big stores start marketing early to promote layaway and get people thinking about the holidays. Christmas has more retailers than any other holiday. If you look at the revenue acquired during Christmas and Halloween, Christmas has more purchases than Halloween.

Putting Christmas themed items out creates more sales for small business. Look at it this way, if you were a small business and put out a small display of Christmas items, you get people thinking about Christmas at your store. If you don’t, big store departments will take away your customers. In Pella, we have a Christmas Tour of Stores. This is where the small shops in Pella stay open late for locals to tour their stores and get deals.

So how can small businesses compete with bigger corporations? They can offer a more personalized service than a big department store. By knowing customers by name, they create a better shopping experience. They can carry unique items that aren’t found in the big stores. After all, who wants to wear the same sweater as everyone else in school? Shopping local gives back to the community.

But, shopping in big department stores can be less stressful. Bigger stores have more products on hand, more items to choose from. Thus, making it cheaper in some cases to shop in big department stores. They also have Black Friday deals which makes shopping cheaper.

All in all, businesses have different ways to spread holiday cheer. Money plays a big role in getting business up and advertising; According to usatoday.com decorating and advertising early equals more profit for that business. The best way to spread Christmas cheer is promoting early, but not all year.

•Tiffany Van Gilst, [email protected]