Before I proceed this is not a debate about the Christian aspects of Christmas. If you believe in the Nativity story that superseded the pagan Yule ceremony, is your problem/belief.
What I am pontificating about is the consumerism of Christmas. This last weekend I went into the local Checkers and lo and behold the Christmas decorations are up. That is 11 weeks, nearly 3 months and a quarter of the year before the event.
Soon we will be bombarded by such Christmas specials as 10c off a tin of baked beans which is valid until 14th October and other ridiculous offers.
My moan is who the hell is going to rush out and buy baked beans to stock up for Christmas and surely a Christmas special is actually on special until the close of business on Christmas Eve. Why do the marketing people of the supermarket chains take us for such morons?
By the time Christmas actually does come around, I am utterly fed up with listening to some idiot singing about riding in a sleigh in the snow and it is 30 degC outside and other Christmassy songs and carols. How the shop assistants do not go out of their mind listening to this canned music up to 12 hours a day is beyond me.
The next stage is all the shopping centres trying to outdo each other with their Carols by Candlelight. These will start soon as got to be in first and if yours is delayed nearer to Christmas no one will come as they are all Carolled out.
Also children must wonder how the incarnation of Coca Cola’s marketing will get down the chimney to deliver presents, when most of our houses have no chimney and surely he will set off the security alarm.
All of the above must make me sound like a grumpy Ebenezer Scrooge but I am not. The run up to Christmas is like a “important” rugby/football/cricket match such as a test or final. Everybody waffles on about it so that when the actual event arrives it is an anti-climax (that why I never listen to the Rugby chat and get a beer at half-time).
Anyway forget all the advertising on TV, you will really know it is Christmas as the Easter Eggs will be the shops.
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