Making way for Christmas

December’s decorations compete for space with Halloween’s at local stores. Retailers hope to promote holiday spending.Is today a day for ghoulish costumes and haunted houses? Or is already time for evergreens and wrapping paper?

For retailers, the answers to both questions would likely be “yes.” Obviously, today is Halloween and the last chance to stock up on candy for trick-or-treaters or snag a costume for nocturnal festivities. But if you look around Newport-Mesa, it’s not too hard to see signs of December’s holiday season.

Roger’s Gardens in Corona del Mar is one place where Halloween and Christmas decorations coexisted in a Tim Burton-like harmony. Perhaps no item at Roger’s Gardens illustrated holiday crossover better than an all-black decoration that resembled a Christmas tree but was adorned with bats and other spooky ornaments.

At Roger’s Gardens, Halloween season started on Labor Day, creative director Eric Cortina said. Christmas goods went up for sale the first week of October. The process of phasing out the Halloween-flavored decorations started during the second week of the month.

“We transition it because Christmas is such an important season for us,” Cortina said.

Motorists driving along San Joaquin Hills Drive recently may have seen holiday lights illuminating Roger’s Gardens. Rather than go all-out with the holiday lighting throughout November, the lights are not scheduled to be aglow nightly until Thanksgiving weekend, Cortina said.

Histories of Halloween’s evolution as a holiday take note of the day’s roots in the Christian celebration of All Saints’ Day and the Celtic pagan commemoration of Samhain, when it was believed that the spirits of the dead were active in the world of the living.

According to the History Channel’s website, Samhain’s traditions also commingled with Roman holidays, and many historians believe Halloween, or All Hallows’ Eve, emerged as Christian authorities sought to transform Samhain and remove its pagan elements.

In its modern incarnation, Halloween has taken on new meaning as a signal that it’s time to start shopping for the holidays, UC Irvine sociology department chairman Calvin Morrill said.

At a sale Thursday at the Bloomingdale’s store in Fashion Island, it appeared as if shoppers already had gift-giving on their minds, store spokeswoman Erin Bianchi said.

At South Coast Plaza, an obvious sign of holiday preparations could be seen Wednesday, with the arrival of a 95-foot Christmas tree at Town Center Park. Fashion Island’s tree is slated to arrive Thursday.