Some folks start stringing up the Christmas lights as soon as the Halloween decorations come down, but hardcore shoppers know when their dream season begins.
Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, has become the accepted if unofficial start time of the Christmas rush. It's a huge day for retailers but only the first of a roughly month-long extravaganza.
And thanks to Abe Lincoln, who decreed Thanksgiving a national holiday, Franklin D. Roosevelt, who signed into law that it should fall on the fourth Thursday in November, and Pope Gregory XIII, who blessed the calendar we use by papal bull, 2012 has the longest possible shopping season.
With Nov. 1 falling on Thursday, the fourth Thursday and Thanksgiving, Nov. 22, couldn't have fallen any sooner. And that means there is more time – the most time any year can provide – for shoppers to shop and businesses to reap bounty.
Where do you prefer to do your holiday shopping? The mall? Specialty stores? Discount stores? Online? Tell us in the comment section below.
It was moved back to the 4th Thursday in 1941.