Don’t forget to “Post Early for …” !
Posted by Big John on October 17, 2008
For the past month or so I have been pushing my trolley (cart) around Sainsbury’s avoiding the piles of ‘Quality Street’, the ’mountains’ of shortbread, and heaps of ‘Stella Artois’, and watching the increasing ads on TV for perfume, booze and ‘must have’ gadgets: so it has to be nearly Christmas.
No ! It bloody isn’t ! .. It’s only October ! .. We haven’t even emptied the shops of all the Halloween rubbish yet, and the ‘banging season’ leading up to ‘Guy Fawkes NIght’ on 5th November has only just got started.
There are reports of Christmas decorations going up in town centres and shopping malls, and I’ve already received several requests from various charities to buy their seasonal greetings cards.
I noted this week that Sainsbury’s had a large display of festive decorations, so the mince pies and Christmas puddings can’t be far away; and I bet if I look I’ll find turkeys in the freezer cabinets along with the sausage rolls and those little stuffing balls.
It won’t be long before the press start reporting on all the ‘politically correct’ local councils who are banning carols and mangers which only they think will offend Muslims, along with the ‘health and safety’ fanatics who are removing holly wreaths in case someone pricks their finger.
Oh! .. and I’ve just been to the pub for lunch, where they have their ‘Christmas Party’ menu on display alongside a notice urging us to book NOW !
I thought that this year the ‘commercial’ Christmas might be cancelled due to the ‘Credit Crunch’, and I expect that for many people it will be.
Who knows ? .. Perhaps we may see the true meaning and spirit of Christmas return, and I’ll stop saying …
… Bah! Humbug ! 
Pamela said
The Tesco near us has had the mince pies and puddings on display for the last couple of weeks. This morning, I noticed that the end of one aisle was given over to a whole wall of packets of stuffing and I know there’s a lot more, but I’ve been trying to avert my eyes from it all. It’s too much.
Betty said
The first thing that happens here is the annual onslaught of holiday catalogs in the mail. I think the retailers are really worried about the season’s profits this year. And, they should be.
One year, my daughter gave me a cute little tree ornament, which holds pride of place on my tree every Christmas. It’s a Grinch.
Darlene said
Bah! Humbug! reminds me of a story. There is a subdivision in Tucson that has the requirement in the deed that the homeowners must decorate their yards for Christmas. It’s a big event and they even have hayrides and buses that travel through the streets to see the different yards. One year a Jewish family wanted to buy a house there, but they didn’t want to decorate their yard. They bought the house and deed restrictions must be obeyed. So their yard had a large sign reading BAH HUMBUG.
John-Ward Leighton said
Perhaps if we ignore them they will go away.
JWL
Ginnie said
Hi John: I’m proud of my family. This “recession” has hit them all in the pocket book where it hurts, but they’ve risen above it. They have decided to forego giving gifts and to just get our entire family together and share a meal and lots of love.
oscarandre said
Sounds like Australia, John – all celebration, no joy…
SilverTiger said
Retailers want to make money and so consider it in their interest to extend any money-making period as long as possible. Christmas is an example. OK, then why not simply extend the Christmas buying period to the whole year? After all, in London at least, we have a number of Christmas shops, open all year round, that sell nothing but stuff for Christmas.
Once the Christmas market has been extended right through the year, we can simply ignore it just as we already ignore all the other permanent displays that do not interest us. And being a non-boozing, non-TV-watching vegetarian, believe me, I have oodles of things to ignore. In fact, I’m quite good at it, so Christmas hardly ripples the surface of my calm.
I think Christmas phobia a little like religious phobia. Look around the blogosphere: who are the people who talk most about religion? Why, atheists, of course. They can’t leave it alone. Atheist blogs are wall-to-wall about religion and I’ve never understood why.
There are plenty of wonderful things in life to get on with without obsessing about the things we do not like.