Regular readers of this blog will be well aware of my ambivalent feelings about Christmas - once it actually comes, I enjoy spending it with my loved ones and of course I enjoy the week off work.
However, the lead-up always feels like someone's got their hands around your neck and squeezing tighter and tighter: the packed shops, the Christmas songs on repeat from October (I feel so sorry for those people working in retail having to suffer all that), the overpriced meals in restaurants, the Christmas lunches/nights out, the forced jollity, the Secret Santas, the pressure which builds and builds due to additional tasks at work, the general view that if you're childless by choice that Christmas is somewhat more worthless for you, need I go on?
But before all that, the first danger signs of the C word appear. Today I read this and became extremely annoyed: http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/lifestyle/u/summer-is-over-retailers-put-christmas-cards-on-the-shelves.1407825651
Summer is a very short season in this country. Can we please, please be allowed to enjoy what's left of it? It's only August. The rain may be back, the temperatures plummeting and the nights are getting darker, but officially it is still summer. We will be in winter soon enough. I've been reading a lot about mindfulness and the importance of living in the moment, yet no-one told that to the retail industry. So we have Easter Eggs and Valentine cards in January, summer clothes appearing in February, winter clothes appearing in August, and months of the pre-Christmas hell. I wish they would stop this acceleration of the seasons. The only exception to this is, of course, Eurovision season! That goes on for months and months, and that's just fine by me :)
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