Christmas creep - starting earlier every year

A sign on the door at Starbucks advised that hours on Christmas Day will be 4:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Good to know — but 60 days in advance? Inside the Paso Robles, California, store coffee was being served in festive green cups, although outside it was 82 degrees on a sunny fall afternoon.

Channel 4 in New York City was running a commercial for Radio City’s Christmas Spectacular: “A mesmerizing holiday tradition.” The mall in Tempe, Arizona, was playing “Holly Jolly Christmas.” An email from the NBA offered free shipping on basketball shirts from the “2016 Christmas Day Collection.”

A full-page ad...