mjm wired ;)  

That's nothing - Costco has had Christmas decorations/products on display for the last 2-3 weeks! I couldn't believe it. This was a month before U.S. Thanksgiving (which is usually the starting point of the Christmas shopping season). Talk about retail desparation...

Re Halloween: Sorry but it IS an international secular holiday (by Wikipedia's definition). If you further read the Wikipedia history behind Halloween, you'll see that, like Easter and Christmas, it was a pagan ritual "appropriated" by Christianity and given a holy spin. Nonetheless, there's no denying that it's a fun holiday for the kids. They love it and that energy incites the parents into participating. It's not that hard to understand.

Sure commercialism is depressing, but people can still enjoy the holiday without being so cynical. As for your previous entry: I took my 19-month old kids out in some costumes hand-made by my wife to visit our neighbors. Did my kids ask for it or know what was going on? Of course not, they can barely speak let alone walk! But you know what? The neighbors had a blast seeing our kids dressed up, they took pictures and we chatted, my kids liked the excitement of being in a furry costume, of being out later at night, seeing the lights and the decorations and then later of watching other kids come to our house in costumes. It's most definitely not about candy (at least at this stage for my kids). These events generate good memories and give us an excuse to visit with people that we don't visit as often as we might like in today's busy world. I see nothing wrong with getting into the spirit for those reasons.