Christmas Terror

[buttons]

Why oh why does christmas seem to get earlier each year!! Passing houses decorated in lights and tinsel in November is just not right. I love christmas but why do we as a society feel the need to make it last so long? What ever happened to the twelve days before, twelve days after that i remember being a rule as a kid? Was that something that my parents made up to get some peace and quiet during the beginning of December?

[gilf]

Your correct buttons. I used to love Chrsitmas as a kid (still do really) but like many things its been turned into a commercial event rather than a religious one. Not for a second am I saying I'm religious because I'm not, but I think its terrrible its been hijacked by shops just to make a bit of money. Am I a kill joy, no but do you really need 400 meters of tinsel and lights to have a good time. I think next year I might not even celebrate it, not commercially anyway.

[darth vader]

Our decorations go up christmas eve. always have done. (It's a traditional thing for Mrs Vader and the little darths)

[sft42]

Why? Quite simple...Money. a current myth perpetuates that if you can give your sprogs the best toys that are filling up the shelves then you aren't a good parent....the worst time of the year by miles...hugely depressing and annoying. Roll on january.

[buttons]

roll on feb as im always too skint on jan to appreciate the fact that christmas is over!!

[treaclefight]

we're buddhists, so we end up celebrating EVERYTHING, xmas cant begin too early, we're only just tidying up from diwali etc etc, dont be bullied in to starting xmas before you want to, but be careful not to turn into scrooge too, its a time to be happy and show each other how much we care and i think the money side of things has just created too much pressure and people forget to enjoy it. perhaps we should start a campaign to reclaim christmas, get it back to what it was, im going to stop abrreviating it from now on to remind myself what its supposed to be.

[Gef]

sft writes "Roll on january" - why? - the shops will be full of Easter eggs then!

[sft42]

Cause it's my birthday on the 13th.

[buttons]

Gef you missed a stage - christmas is normally followed by valentines stuff, then easter stuff then they normally invent some kind of grandparents day or something if it is a slow month.

[gilf]

Great point treaclefight using x-mas only serves to distance it from its true meaning.

[treaclefight]

forget christmas for today, celebrate Ede with me. Ede is a celebration of the new spiritual life to come for the year, its alot like christmas but only seems to involve about 1% of the stress. i know you're all laughing at me, but our policy of celebrating everything really does keep christmas in perspective and at the same time makes you think about the real reasons why we celebrate it. it doesnt do any harm to think about these things several times a year. (and stopping abbreviating it is working too, ty for kind comment gilf).

[TRINITY]

Cos every year we get older and the xmas list gets longer. BUT really its a loss of the 'beauty of innocence.' :(

[gazzawazza]

I love Christmas and can't understand why anybody wouldn't like this time of year. This is only my opinion but this doesn't mean I want it to start in November. I would like to see decorations start to be put up in mid-December but I wouldn't force my views on anyone, if these people want to put up decorations in November, let them.

As for saying that it's the worst time of the year, (not picking on you sft but you have said this at least twice!) well, surely approaching it with this attitude helps you to enforce this miserable frame of mind! Perhaps you want to feel like that at this time of year, but in my experience, taking a more positive attitude helps to see things in a different light. I'm not trying to preach but loads of times I've had to do things, visit people, go to parties or places which I really didn't want to attend and I know that when I've gone with a "I'm going to have a really cr*p time here" attitude that's exactly what has happened. I'm sure everyone can say the same thing, but on the other hand, when I've looked at these occasions saying, "Well I've got to go so I'm going to have the best time I can" it really does work. Try it, you might even raise a smile!

[docklands77]

I first heard Christmas mentioned this year in June. Is this a record?!

[worker]

I think Jesus should've been born in, say, February, when the shops were less crowded.

[robssk8angel]

but wouldn't the shops then be crowded in february?