A different sight greeted shoppers at Wal-Mart on Halloween instead of pumpkins, costumes and trick-or-treaters. There was an electronic dancing Santa Claus directly within the automatic sliding doors of the entrance.

As shoppers venture inside the store, 1665 N. Atherton Place, they saw that Christmas decorations have all but taken over the lawn and garden section. A display of gift cards next to the cash registers read "54 shopping days until Christmas."

Now that Halloween has come and gone, stores are looking to transition out of their current inventory and gear up for the Thanksgiving and holiday season.

Isabella's Hallmark, 114 E. College Ave., used last Tuesday to pack up the Halloween merchandise that had occupied the front of the store and fill that space with fake snow and Santa Clauses. Manager Erica Earnest said the Thanksgiving holiday, however, traditionally doesn't get significant attention.

"Thanksgiving kind of takes a back burner to Christmas," she said.

Wegmans, 345 Lowes Blvd., put extra Halloween merchandise on sale this week while simultaneously preparing for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

"There's a lot of orders we have to place that take time to get here," store manager Steve Gallucci said.

Wegmans began selling artificial Christmas trees in October, even before the Halloween holiday, he said.

"I think the Christmas tree season begins earlier and earlier every year for all retailers," Gallucci said.

Gen Wilde, president of the Newman Catholic Student Association, said she doesn't think the early Christmas displays are a problem. "Christmas is a very commercialized holiday nowadays, so I can understand it," she said.

However, not everyone starts the Christmas season quite so early. Teresa Sparacino, executive director of the State College Downtown Improvement District, said that the tree lighting ceremony at the Allen Street Gates would occur in the same time frame as previous years. This year's ceremony will be Nov. 17, a week before Thanksgiving.

Sparacino added that decorative banners and snowflakes would be hung up shortly before the ceremony.

Harner Farm, 2191 W. Whitehall Road, won't start selling Christmas trees until the weekend after Thanksgiving. Dan Harner, owner of Harner Farm, said that usually the most popular week for buying trees is the second week in December. He added that the transition from Halloween is a smooth one, pointing out that the farm sold most of its pumpkin inventory and would have only a few leftovers.

Harner added that in the weeks before Thanksgiving, customers would still be able to use his farm's corn maze, as long as the weather is nice. He is also anticipating that some customers will buy table settings for Thanksgiving dinner. "The Thanksgiving season kind of kicks off the Christmas season," he said.

John Tait, owner of Tait Farm Trees, located along Route 322 in Boalsburg, said his business also would get most of its Christmas tree customers after Thanksgiving. He said that even though some businesses start selling artificial trees earlier, his business shouldn't suffer.

"Part of why people come for fresh trees is the experience of coming out and having a family experience out on the farm," he said.