Tis the season to be, among other things, complaining about the commercialization of the holidays.
This Friday, millions of shoppers will descend upon America's malls to mark the official beginning of the holiday shopping season.
And while they will be clawing, punching and even roundhouse kicking each other for this season's "hot items," many of them will undoubtedly begin complaining Saturday about how retailers ruin the holiday spirit.
What these people fail to see is that it is they, and not the retailers, who have tarnished the spirit of a holiday season that was merely meant to encourage people to come together and enjoy each other's company.
After all, the customers are the ones who will be heading out to the stores just as soon as the last piece of pumpkin pie is served to start their shopping.
They cannot wait to get grandma and Aunt Edna out of their houses on Thanksgiving so they can get their hands on the hot toy this season.
And it is these "must-have" items that characterize each holiday season.
We all know them, and I am sure most of us even received a few of them as gifts during their inaugural seasons.
But while companies such as Best Buy, Toys "R" Us and Wal-Mart spent millions on advertising that told us we would all but die without these toys, we bought into it, didn't we?
If we were that worried about how these products would adversely affect the holidays, then why did we buy so many of them?
If last week was any indication of how this holiday season will be remembered, it will certainly be one characterized by a high demand for high-priced electronics.
On Friday, millions turned out at stores across the country in hopes of snagging one of the 400,000 PlayStation 3s manufactured by Sony.
And on Sunday, a repeat performance was made by gamers who were eager to grab the Wii, the latest in a series of systems made by Nintendo.
Without a doubt these items will be the talk of this holiday season, but consumers will be the ones doing it. Each company has kept product advertisements to a minimum, relying only on word of mouth and established customer interest to sell their products.
And these tactics have proved successful, as both systems quickly sold out of their initial shipments, and stories of riots and fights between customers waiting for PlayStation 3s dominated headlines.
But this time, there wasn't a company to blame for this asinine behavior; consumers have only themselves to blame.
For those who think we have already seen the worst of the holiday shopping season, au contraire.
Certainly fights and riots were not limited to last week.
Each Black Friday stores open early and offer special early-bird specials to get people in their doors, and this year looks to be no different than the past.
Wal-Mart is offering a limited quantity of 42-inch widescreen plasma HD televisions for $988, a deal that is sure to cause a frenzy and maybe even a panic as each store sells out of its supply shortly after opening.
So why will shoppers begin lining up well before Wal-Mart's 5 a.m. opening to catch these deals and then complain while walking out of Wal-Mart's front doors about the commercialization of the holidays?
The answer is simple: As consumers, we have created a holiday season shopping industry with nearly limitless demand.
We want it all, as long as we can put the blame on someone else.
And companies such as Best Buy, Toys "R" Us and Wal-Mart are cashing in on that demand. But who can really blame them?
A demand has been created and they are just trying to stay in the black by meeting it.
At the end of the Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and all other holiday seasons, consumers are left not with feelings of joy and happiness, but with boatloads of new goodies and sky-high credit card bills.
But maybe this time around, instead of looking elsewhere to place blame, they'll look in the mirror of their Barbie vanity set and see who really is at fault.
