M was correct

Up side: Halloween isn't a consumer event here, so the stores did not become filled with black and orange cruft for the six weeks before the end of October.

Down side: The red and green Christmas shopping season starts in mid-October.

Undecided: It's "Christmas" here, not the uncommitted "Winter Season's Neither Holy nor non-Holy Zero or More Days of Optional Consumer Excess but it's OK if you don't Celebrate Because We don't Want to Offend" marked in Canada.