Santa warms to summer with ‘Christmas in July’ sales, but some shoppers are cool to gimmick

Stores push summertime ‘Christmas’ sales

NEW YORK — Santa in the summer?

Retailers are pumping still more energy this year into trying to get shoppers to loosen their purse strings early for Christmas with sparkly ornaments, holiday music and special prices. In July.

Target Corp. is entering the game for the first time, with a one-day online sale starting Friday morning on 500 items from clothing to Blu-ray disc players that’s modeled after sales typically held Thanksgiving weekend. And Sears and Toys R Us are dramatically promoting “Christmas in July” online based on the success they saw in last year’s efforts.

Some recession-weary shoppers have been glad to spread out the cost of the holidays, but others may be turned off. And stores are divided as well.