In our quest to figure out how to decorate our kitchen along with looking around for other practical/decorative items for our hourse, mr. strivingcynic and I have been spending some time in home furnishing stores.

A few weeks ago, we walked into Home Goods, and what I’ll call the “general fall” decorations were on display. Mostly items with colored leaves or in what we consider to be “fall” colors (orange, hunter greens).

(foliage) changes are gonna come

A week or two later, we walked in, and the fall colors were over to the side. Front and center and on peripheral aisles…Halloween! Lots of orange, silver, black, purple, bats, spiders, witches hats and shoes, and of course, black cats! In the candle section are candles that smell like candy corn, caramel apples, or that have some “fright” factor punned into their fragrance name. Yes, if fall is coming, then Halloween is coming too..

and it’s not just home decor that’s out there!

On Friday, we went in again. There was the fall stuff, the front-and-center Halloween stuff, and these were joined by a smaller display featuring, you guessed it, turkeys, cornucopias, and pilgrims…because if fall is coming and Halloween is going to be around the corner…then it’s only the blink of an eye until Thanksgiving (I know for my Canadian friends, Thanksgiving is a lot closer than Halloween, but I’m a good 7+ hours from the Canadian border…).

So, I strongly suspect that the next time I enter Home Goods, Christmas and New Year’s will be making their claims on the display space.

No wonder I’m feeling pressure to get my Christmas shopping done.

When I lived alone in my apartment, I never decorated for any holiday. With Mr. sc and sc teen, we do decorate for Christmas (and my menorah gets pulled out and used). But, I am actually a sucker for all these decorations…I want to cover our house in funny/scary/cute Halloween items, have a few turkeys and pumpkins around for Thanksgiving, change the household linens to a “fall” pallette..and why not a few “Happy New Year” cushions on our couch when the big change comes (if they come out soon, I can use them for Rosh Hashanah [Jewish New Year] next week, too…).

I resist in part because I think if I started buying these holiday “accessories,” I’d never stop. I’d be “Halloweenland” followed by “Thanksgivingland,” and although our Christmas stuff comes out of our storage space and then goes back in a few weeks later, I wouldn’t want to do this constantly.

strivingcynic cat (our living Halloween decoration) checks out a stuffed animal counterpart

So, it’s best I just ooh and ahh over everything in the store (although, maybe it will be discounted even more when the holiday passes, so that next year…)

Have you started noticing fall/holiday items in the stores yet? What holidays do you decorate for?