Is this crazy or what?

Post by **joette** » Sat Sep 15, 2007 4:14 pm

Nothing to do with FH but I was gobsmacked when shopping yesterday to see a shelf full of Advent Calendars& other Christmas goodies-for this year not last year's leftovers.
As it's still warm & sunny the last thing on my mind is Christmas.What next Easter Bunnies??

helenbee · Post by **helenbee** » Sat Sep 15, 2007 4:29 pm

Our local Tesco avoids the problem by selling hot cross buns all year round!

Post by **emanday** » Sat Sep 15, 2007 5:34 pm

What really annoys me about this premature marketing is that the shelves they use always end up with a lot of other stock disappearing! Murphy's Law - it is usually the stuff I went in for that gets moved out!

Bertha · Post by **Bertha** » Sat Sep 15, 2007 6:28 pm

I walked in to Sainsbury's today to find they had both Halloween and Christmas goodies on display!
At least last year they got Halloween out of the way first.
I heard one very confused child ask when Christmas was, she looked about 8/9. She obviously thought it was imminent.
Bertha

Post by **AnneM** » Sat Sep 15, 2007 9:16 pm

Last year from mid October till early December I was in Sri Lanka and the great thing there is that there was not one Christmas item in sight until just before our departure. A 3 or 4 week run before Christmas is about right. OK Sri Lanka is a predominantly Buddhist country but there are quite a few Christians and a big ex pat European community.

Anne

helenbee · Post by **helenbee** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 12:37 pm

I actually feel sorry for children today who must get bored with the whole thing well before Christmas. I think it does them out of the exciting (short) run-up to Christmas which they used to get when it started halfway through December. It doesn't seem to help parents either - I supposed it's meant to persuade them to spend more over the months the stuff's on the shelves, but generally all it seems to do is extend the panic.
Actually, when I was growing up in the 40s & 50s, apart from mum making Christmas cake and pudding in November, Christmas started on Christmas Eve, when we all helped to put up the tree and decorate it. We didn't have masses of presents so mum didn't have to spend months shopping, and I'm positive I appreciated them more than today's children surrounded by tacky stuff they've forgotten by New Year. I certainly preferred our version and did the same for my daughter, so hopefully she saw Christmas as exciting and not as a long dragged-out bore. OK, I'm an old bat in my 60s, but I still think we got it about right!

Post by **emanday** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 1:13 pm

It was the same in our house when we were kids, Helen.

I think the mystery of what was going to happen made it all the more exciting.

Post by **joette** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 2:53 pm

Yep us too - the tree would go up on Christmas Eve & after bath & hairwash we would decorate the tree & the room.Then supper something of a treat & home-made like mince pies & then sing carols & tell stories then hang up the stockings & bed.
Mum still follows that tradition & the tree doesn't go up until Christmas Eve.
Last year because of health problems we didn't put it up until Christmas A.M.We couldn't find the base so it ended up in a bucket of earth like a real tree.
Best Christmas ever was the 23 &24th birth of a new nephew & niece from each of my sisters.So that gives us 8th,11th,22,23&24th birthdays.
We had the hanging up the stocking bit with the elder two that year too.We still hang up our stocking & Santa fills it still.Mum's too.

Andrew C. · Post by **Andrew C.** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 4:43 pm

I would ban it if I had my way.

helenbee · Post by **helenbee** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 4:49 pm

Ban what? Christmas, or the extended preparation season?

TalkingScot.com

Is this crazy or what?

Is this crazy or what?

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