Holidays are a time to celebrate and be with friends and family. It is traditional to have Halloween in October and Christmas in December, but what happens when preparations for these holidays overlap?

Every year retail and convenience stores set out decorations and toys related to the holidays earlier and earlier. Halloween decor is usually placed on the shelf the first week of October, but then–about a week into the month–Christmas is placed right behind the bats and pumpkins.

There is a certain uncomfortableness when seeing red and green mixed in with orange and black. It almost feels wrong to have these two completely different holidays together in this way.

In a way, customers and workers at these stores can become desensitized by this overlapping of holidays.

For example, Christmas is supposed to be a warming and magical time for people, but the tolerance level for cutesy jingle bells is about one month. Once that month passes people noticeably become crankier and bored with a tradition that hasn’t fully started yet. Having Christmas expand by about two and a half months is overkill and ruins the true spirit of the holidays.

With Christmas moving in on the shelves, Halloween loses part of its territory and becomes overshadowed by Santa hats and the ever-so-creepy “elf on the shelf.”

Retail and convenience stores need to find a balance between these holidays and not have them overpower each other.

If we could all go back to October being strictly Halloween territory and Christmas not arriving until December, it will help everyone manage these holidays–one month at a time–and will reignite the spark of excitement for when each holiday approaches.