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!