I wrote the below blog exactly 12 months ago...I stand by it and believe it even more after this year if I am honest, with the commercialisation growing ever stronger, we even join in Thanksgiving now, well the retail side of it, giving names to days of the week, such as Black Friday...how about Stupid Saturday? Or Sale Now On Sunday? Or Wtf Wednesday? Or Manic Monday...ok that's been done but you get my drift....I fear the below is a little nearer...I hope I'm wrong...


What do people blame for absolutely everything prior to December each year?

I only ask this question as Christmas seems to be causing more and more issues each year and there are some counting the seconds to January 2nd when "it will all be over"!

Now far be it for me to criticise anyone's opinion about anything but I do wonder at times if as a society there is something a little more to all this bah humbug attitude. Allow me to explain what I mean.

If you have ever read Dickens A Christmas Carol you may see where I am coming from.
Back in 1842 Christmas was a very basic occasion, for the majority of people. They celebrated the day and that was essentially that. But the day was the important thing. No Boxing Day and not everyone was given the opportunity to have the 25th as a day off either. "Be here all the earlier the next morning" Scrooge ordered Cratchit after reluctantly giving him Christmas Day off.

After visiting a well known coffee chain this weekend that instruction could be changed to "be here all the earlier Chirstmas Day...yes you read me correct...fancy a skinny latte before your Christmas dinner? When I asked the young assistant why? She couldn't really answer, so let me try and answer for her.

This thin end of a very thick wedge is, I believe, another step in the de christmasing of society.
For years now Christmas has been taken over by commercial interests and the push for cashing in starts earlier and earlier, feeding the public perception that Christmas starts in late September. By November the constant drip drip drip of must have toys,games and gadgets has worn people down and by the time the first door on the advent calendar is opened everyone feels like its mid January.

We are told that we live in a 27/7 world and that we must work work and, oh yes work, so our society doesn't get left behind in something called the global race...should it be so our vested interests profits don't suffer a blip?

Apart from the boost to retail,Christmas is a great inconvenience for our leaders. Time off, drops in productivity, it's enough to make you want to ban it...but...wait a moment...no right minded politician, or centre right for that matter, would be foolish enough to try and make that decision for us...but, wouldn't it be a great idea to help create the conditions so people themselves would say, no more Christmas please?

I am not sure anything would give them great pleasure in turning us into a 24/7/365 society with no respite and a lot less sense of community and goodwill.

Bunkum I hear a few of you cry, well, those old enough cast your mind back only 25 years, how many shops were open late? What did we do on our Sundays? Christmas and bank holiday were just that, holidays. Profits didn't suffer, society didn't fall apart, people didn't need therapy, it was the norm.

The introduction of 24 hour this and that sent us another step nearer the border line, I fear the Christmas morning latte could be the beginning of the final push to make Christmas the scapegoat and demote it to just another ordinary day that was once very special