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| In Dunnes Stores yesterday...But I suspect it's been there for weeks! |
Last year, I published a post mid-November, asking whether it was too early to talk about Christmas. I don't know what you think, but I have the feeling that the festive season has started even earlier this year.
It's subtle though. There are no decorations on the streets yet and no Christmas songs on the radio either, but shops are already selling Christmas trees, and believe it or not, Lidl has been selling chocolates and Christmas pudding since mid-September.
Yesterday, I was in Dunnes Stores and was baffled to see Christmas decorations, trees and related accessories for sale already. On the other hand, the Halloween section was confined to a small shelf and half an aisle near the check-out. It's not even Halloween yet!!!!
I just feel shops are shovelling the whole Christmas thing down our throats and trying to make us buy stuff we don't even need right now. A couple of weeks ago, I was in a store where there were already Advent calendars for sale. Nothing weird about that, considering what's going on, but the strange thing is that I saw a mum with her kids buying some. Does she expect them to wait until the 1st of December to eat them? Is she going to hide the chocolates until the date? My guess is that they've already been eaten by now.
Call me old fashioned, but I think tradition is still important. What's the point of an Advent calendar if you eat everything before the Advent has started. Just buy regular chocolates! It's not a big deal in itself, but I feel this is all the paradox about Christmas. It has become so commercial and the run-up to it is so long that the magic, and ultimately the meaning, are getting lost. And the thought of my kids asking to put the tree up next week is freaking me out.
To be fair, it's not just about Christmas. On the 1st of July there were already "Back to School" stuff in Tesco, and on the 1st of September we were ready for Halloween. Thankfully Easter eggs won't be on sale before at least the 1st of February because January is the "Get back in shape" month. Hey, you have to lose all that weight gained by eating 20 Advent calendars on the run-up to Christmas!
Do you think Christmas starts to early?
