Christmas Comes But Once A Year
If only it was so! Christmas seems to start earlier and earlier each year! Every year around about August, restaurants and pubs start advertising their Christmas menu and ask you to book in advance. This year, Selfridges* opened their Christmas store on the 2nd August, a whole 145 days before the big day. Mince pies appear in the shops in September, with a best before date that runs out before Christmas day. Shopping centers have their grottos open in November.
One house that I pass on my walk to work each morning had decorations up on the 7th November. The 7th! Of November!!
At first I thought they were Diwali decorations that had been left up but when I looked closer I made out a snowman amongst the lights, so that ballsed up that theory. As November continued, a few more houses started putting their’s up as well.
But what is the point of doing such a thing a more than a month before Christmas happens? Some people say “it’s for the kids”. This to me is a stupid reason to do it. You’re going to have to put up with hyper children for all that time. You also run the risk of all Christmassing them out by the time it actually comes around and then they treat it just like any other day and not like the magical, wonderous day it really is**.
When I was a kid we didn’t put our decorations up until about a week before Christmas, and that’s been the general consensus among friends. One or two people would put it up around the middle of the month. These days the norm appears to be to have them up on the 1st December.
And then to go totally overboard decorating the outside of the house with reindeer, snowmen, santas, icicle lights, flashing patterned lights and all manner of other gaudy monstrosoties that could cause problems for airplanes if they happen to be in their flightpath, as neighbours try to outdo each other in chavvy displays of one-upmanship.
I don’t think any one knows the meaning of the word ‘understated’ any more, I don’t remember the last time I looked at a house’s decorations and commented on how nice they looked.
*Although they don’t you know. Sell fridges.
**No sarcasm to see here, move on. Oh, and Christmassing is a word. I just invented it
