It’s the day after Halloween, parents are trying to find ways to prevent their kids from slipping into sugar comas, but big businesses are gearing up for the busiest season of the year.

It’s holiday  time. However, this is not a new occurrence, the overdone holiday season goes back many years throughout many companies.  In a classic 1965 holiday cartoon Charlie Brown speaks on the issue that Christmas has become highly commercialized and less about the actual holiday. “Look, Charlie, let’s face it. We all know that Christmas is a big commercial racket. It’s run by a big eastern syndicate, you know,” said Linus who is supposed to be around 10 years old, and that was 1965. Companies don’t really have another holiday to exaggerate throughout the year where people spend hundreds of dollars.

At this time of year many people forget where the holiday came from and why it is so important to so many people, as well as how many different traditions became mixed together. They get distracted by all of the advertisements for fancy new items.

During the holiday season it seems that Christmas is the only thing that is highly commercialized, and that is true.

The advertising market has stepped up its game in recent years. This year for the holiday season,online advertisements are up 11 percent as compared to last year.,Coming from  Companies have started their ad campaigns much earlier. A lot of this has to do with the fact that there is less time in between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Retailers are also putting a lot of emphasis on shopping this year because the average consumer is decreasing their budget by 2 percent and the companies want to make their products seem necessary.

Coca-Cola started advertising with Santa in 1931 and helped shaped him into the jolly figure he is today. When asked about the reason that the company advertises so much with Santa a customer service rep said, “People like seeing [Santa] on television and the cans because it reminds them of the Christmas spirit, and gets them excited for the holidays.”

Walmart and KMart have layaway during the holiday season so more people are able to buy more stuff. When questioned about the motives for the free layaway during the holiday season a representative from Walmart said, “We understand that the holiday season is a tough economic time for many Americans, so we introduced the layaway as a way to help make the holidays a more affordable season.”  However, this could be viewed as a marketing ploy to have consumers spend more.

Black Friday sales also contribute to the over commercialization of Christmas. It gets people very hyped up to buy tons of stuff at a discount for their family and friends, and to avoid the December rush. If a person goes into the mall the day after Thanksgiving they will be flooded with sale signs and people everywhere. The black Friday shopping day is a big deal to many teenagers who aren’t always able to buy gifts at the regular prices; so they flood the malls in hopes to find discounted gifts for their friends, family, and themselves.

The over-exaggeration of Christmas has always been around but advertising and marketing and retailing have become more sophisticated and the middle class has a more disposable income, or things have lost value to compete with foreign markets.

Whatever it is, many people and companies have lost the true meaning of the holiday season to the commercialization of everything.