Christmas Cake and Mince Pies Already?

They were selling Christmas Cake and Mince Pies in the grocery stores here in England already on October 12th. Is this because Hallowe'en and Thanksgiving aren't much celebrated in England, so they have to skip straight from Easter to Christmas? Or have I forgotten and Christmas goodies are already for sale in grocery stores in the U.S.?

Actually, they are selling a little bit of Hallowe'en stuff in another area of the shop at the same time, probably because there are so many Americans living around here. I bought a stash of Mars, Twix, Bounty, and KitKat bars in fun-size to give away on October 31st, since our street has a lot of kids who like to dress up and politely come around. Even though I don't much like Hallowe'en itself, I do like dressing up (in non-scary, non-occult costumes), and I do like chocolate (but not hard or chewy candy in unnatural colors), and I do like neighbourhoods getting outside together and doing friendly things.

But since I like chocolate perhaps a tad overmuch, I prayed for help to escape the temptation of trying just one of each right away (right, with 12 days left until the day, how much would be left by then if I started on that path?), and sealed up all the bags of candy, unopened, in an orange bag and wrote in permanent marker on the outside: "To Open on October 31st!" and drew a heart around it. I put it up high where no one will notice it much (including me!). I'm sure I'll get plenty of tastes of it all once the holiday comes around! In the meantime, I have other chocolate of higher quality if I should want some.