 According to Chen et al., in China the Christmas and holiday season "is generally considered to begin with the winter solstice and end after the Lantern Festival".In some stores and shopping malls, Christmas merchandise is advertised beginning after Halloween or even in late October, alongside Halloween items.In the UK and Ireland, Christmas food generally appears on supermarket shelves as early as September or even August, while the Christmas shopping season itself starts from mid-November when the high street Christmas lights are switched on.