12 days of Christmas become months at WEM

EDMONTON - It's continuing to look a lot like Christmas at West Edmonton Mall.

Blazing lights on towering pseudo-spruces shine on passing shoppers. Pine boughs weighted with gleaming baubles hang overhead. Nobody's home at Santa's Village, but there it remains in its kitschy, North Pole glory.

All this, as February ticks down.

And like neighbours who ridicule the homeowner tardy in taking down Santa, people are talking.

At the mall Tuesday evening, it was easy to overhear shoppers snickering at the seasonal anachronism.

"It doesn't make a lot of sense," said Nick Karakochuk, 16. "They should take them down. It's completely out of season now."

"Valentine's Day has already gone," agreed his 18-year-old brother, Dan, who wondered if a shortage of workers was the problem.

Dave Hughes had another theory.

"Lazy. Take it down. What are they doing? It's two months after the fact," said the visitor from Telkwa, B.C.

"Christmas itself bothers me," Hughes said. "I'm tired of it."

Rebecca Broten, also from Telkwa, said, "It looks like they forgot to take them down."

The mall has heard the scorn, said West Edmonton Mall spokeswoman Kimberly Evans.

"We know that it's just been a really hot topic lately," Evans said.

Nearly 100 shoppers and tenants have peppered the mall with e-mails and phone calls questioning or criticizing the late Christmas.

"While we normally have the decorations down by Jan. 15, they have purposely been left up due to a deal WEM is currently negotiating that involves the decorations."

Evans said she couldn't elaborate, saying only the deal will be of "huge benefit" to the mall, the city and the province.

Evans said she appreciated everyone's patience and hoped to be able to reveal more details, perhaps as early as this week.

The decorations don't bother everyone at the mall, however. Yael Seger works at the Corioliss kiosk next to a brightly lit fake spruce.

"I'm Jewish actually, so for me it's just a nice decoration," she said, with a laugh.

bmah@thejournal.canwest.com