Retailers have already begun their extra early push for Christmas this year.

Kmart now has run its first holiday-themed TV ad, which marks the earliest documented television advertising push for Christmas ever, according to an article I read.

And Toys R Us has special deals if you shop for Christmas before Halloween. For every purchase made before Halloween, members of their Rewards R Us club will get gift card money to use after Halloween for shopping leading up to Christmas. Toys R Us also is doing full-price matching on both online and traditional deals this season — with the exception of Black Friday week.

So is it a good idea to shop this early? That depends. I think Toys R Us is frontloading Christmas to get out ahead of Walmart and Target. Those two titans of retail don’t stock their shelves for Christmas until November. So by Toys R Us getting you in the stores in October, they have the field to themselves. Of course, Toys R Us historically has been an expensive toy retailer. So watch the price and be sure to use that great price matching offer from Geoffrey the Giraffe & Co.

This year, by the start of October, my family and I had already completed our Halloween shopping. That puts us among a fifth of Americans who have done the same. A survey from Offers.com finds the average family will spend $73 this Halloween versus $69 a year ago.

We already have Foofoo the Pumpkin sitting on our front stoop. And my son has his costume. He’s going to be a minion from “Despicable Me.” We plan ahead and always try to get two years out of a costume. So when the costume was too big when he tried it on, we just pinned it back a little and he’ll wear it next year too.

Consumer expert Clark Howard’s column appears here each Thursday in conjunction with Deal Spotter, a weekly print section in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Find more answers to your consumer questions at Clark's website.

-- Clark Howard -- Save More, Spend Less, Avoid Rip-offs -- for the Atlanta Bargain Hunter blog

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