Is Christmas taking over the second half of the year? I mean, it seems to be on the mind of almost all the advertisers and supermarket planners.
Sure, Halloween’s big at the moment. Understandable in October, but as big as it is for purchasing parents, it’s a flash in the pan next to Christmas. I bet the numbers back me up.
There are shelves ram-packed with chocolates, and stocking fillers, and gift ideas, and shower sets, and magazines for people who believe they’re actually going to have time for baking. The racks of sparkly jumpers glisten with sequins as you walk by, and penguins and polar bears and santas all wink at you from socks and pyjamas and mugs and wrapped-up advent calendars.
Now. I love it. Don’t misunderstand me. Halloween can get in the bin, and Christmas can come in and stay by the fireside as far as I’m concerned, but the obsession with it, months beforehand… I find that so overwhelming. And frankly a bit unnecessary.
We found a jumper that said ‘Tis the Season’ in beautiful gold, shimmering on black.
“If that said ‘Unto us a Child is born,” I said to Sammy, holding it open, “You’d love that.”
She agreed. Sometimes I wonder whether there are two Christmases and the big, sparkly, presenty one somehow chomped up the little humble one and nobody really noticed. Of course there’s no Christmas jumper in Sainsbury’s with ‘Unto us a Child is born’ written on it! For one thing, it just looks like a pregnancy reveal… in sequins.
Anyway, that’s tired old ground. I’m just saying that this year, the festivities seem to have ramped up even before the spooky pumpkins have had a chance, and I reckon it’s way too much and far too soon. As soon as All Saints’ Day dawns and November flickers through the window, I fear it might be full-on Xmas insanity, with Wham on every radio station and baubles in every window.
And though I love it, that seems like a shame - because while Christmas gets earlier, summer squeezes Autumn from the other end, and the most beautiful time of year is sort of lost between the barbecue and the tinsel, pulped out by a gigantic sparkly Pac-Man wearing the name of a thing it gobbled up decades ago.
I sound like a curmudgeon. Heaven forbid it. I’m just not quite ready to feel that festive yet. And even when I do I kind of hope I’ll be whispering ‘Unto us a Child is born’ along with all the others who truly love a little, humble Christmas.
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