A Holiday Season Arriving Faster Than Anyone Expected Every December, holiday shoppers face the same challenge: too many gifts to buy and not enough time to buy them. But this year, there’s a new twist. Major U.S. retail chains are adjusting their store hours, shortening some evenings, extending others, and—most importantly—closing earlier than usual on Christmas Eve. For shoppers, this isn’t just a schedule change. It’s a signal: The holiday rush must be managed with more planning, more timing awareness, and fewer last-minute assumptions.