Once upon a world ago, advertising and marketing for the Christmas shopping season didn't start until after Thanksgiving.

That unspoken rule was so entrenched that when President Franklin Roosevelt wanted to give retailers an extra week to sell merchandise before Christmas in 1939, he moved the date of Thanksgiving up a week.

Congress put an end to date-shifting shenanigans in 1941 when it permanently set the date for Thanksgiving as the fourth Thursday in November.

By the late 1970s and early 1980s, the pressure to lengthen the selling window led more retailers to the altar of the almighty dollar, and pre-Thanksgiving marketing became blasphemy no more.

After the turn of the century, early November and even October Christmas ads were commonplace. Kmart raised eyebrows and garnered hea

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