Friday 30 November 2012

It's November!

OK, so I accept that today is the last day of November, and that tomorrow is December, but at the moment it is still November.

So why is this important? Well, it’s important because Christmas is still 25 days, nearly 4 weeks, away. But that doesn't seem to have bothered the shops or the radio stations, which have been playing Christmas music for weeks!

Two weeks ago there was a formal dinner at my Squadron, and I was in during the day. At one point I went into the kitchen to see how the Chefs were getting on and they had a radio on. Sadly, the radio station was playing Slade's Merry Xmas Everybody. It was the 17th November, nearly six weeks early. But I also know that many of the shopping centres and shops have been playing Christmas music earlier than this, some since October!

At the risk of sounding like a "back in my day" type, I'm sure that when I was a kid, Christmas advertising and music didn't make an appearance until the beginning to middle of December. The pattern was that Christmas advertising and music was around for about two weeks before Christmas day and then everyone would see how long it was before they spotted their first holiday advert (I think they usually appeared just after the Queen's speech or during the commercials that interrupted the big Christmas day film).

Nowadays, as people book their holidays at the last minute and usually via the Internet, holiday adverts seem to have disappeared and the adverts from Christmas day onwards seem to be for Easter eggs!

So how long will it be before Christmas, Easter and every other holiday is advertised year-round. As it is, people are becoming over-exposed to all the "holidays" and I just think that there will be nothing special about them at all.

I am also sure that when I was a kid, nowhere was open (except newsagents) on the various holidays (Christmas, Boxing Day, New Year's Day, Bank Holidays etc), but now there's been a complete turnaround and it appears that nowhere is closed on these days, in fact they have just become another working day, business and commerce taking priority over family.

Perhaps we should just abolish all of these various high days and holidays. It would be far cheaper!

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