Come fall, there are a few things that everyone can depend on—the leaves change colors, temperatures drop, and many complain that Christmas ads are starting too early.

The discussion about the early start to Christmas ads is a popular water cooler topic, but are they really starting any earlier?

The short answer: Not really. Dating back to the late 1800s, earlier Christmas shopping and the resulting ad creep has long been used as a tactic by retailers, labor advocates and even the U.S. government during wartime. Despite Christmas ad creep's storied history, consumers still seem surprised about it each year.

Complaining about Christmas ad creep has practically become a holiday tradition. Here are five newspaper clippings that show that consumers have been carping about ad creep for a long time. 

1. 2005: 'The customer will rebel'

Here we are, still in this Millennium, nine years ago to be exact. At the time, J.C. Penney's then-CMO Mike Boylson explained that while advertising often begins before Thanksgiving, he doesn't think it will become the norm before Halloween because "if you're not careful, the customer will rebel against that."

2. 1994: 'Please, may we have Thanksgiving next?'

Jo Barnes Duhrkoff, a reader writing into this Spokane, WA-area newspaper in 1994, was annoyed by holiday ad creep. "Please, may we have Thanksgiving next? It does come after Halloween and before Christmas," she said at the time. For her, the annoyance went beyond Holiday ads—she urged her neighbors to "resist the urge" to put up Christmas decorations before Thanksgiving.

3. 1988: 'Keep Christmas down to a minimum' 

Lewis Grizzard, a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist in the 1980s and early 1990s, was not happy, either. On October 22, 1988, Grizzard saw his first Christmas ad of the year—two days before his birthday. He was so disgruntled about it that he wished "Congress would enact some kind of law that would keep Christmas down to a minimum." Clearly, he doesn't know how slowly Congress works.

But Grizzard doesn't stop there. "I wouldn't mind if Christmas didn't start until the middle of December," he said. "That would still give everyone two weeks to do their shopping." Yikes—can you imagine what retailers would look like if everyone waited until two week before Christmas to do their shopping?

4. 1987: Christmas ads in August won't ever really work

This North Carolina-based paper from 1987 reassures readers that while ads are, in fact, starting earlier every year, a Christmas campaign in August isn't "ever going to work as much as we would like it to," according to a University of North Carolina professor.

5. 1968: Earlier every year

This St. Petersburg, FL paper from 1968 had this short blurb about Christmas items being stocked in stores after Labor Day. Imagine the hullabaloo on Twitter if retailers made that the norm nowadays!