...to think that Christmas shouldn't take over a third of the year?

[WiIdfire]

So it's started already. Christmas threads outside of the Christmas topic. 'What have you bought for Christmas?' discussions in three differ Facebook groups I'm in. Supermarkets starting to stock chocolate santas. In August. AUGUST!?!

If you are the sort of person who buys gifts throughout the year, to spread the cost and use for birthdays and Christmas, that's fine. But I think it is totally unreasonable to say 'it's August, must start Christmas shopping!', am I wrong? I'm not even Humbug about it, I enjoy the festival itself, but does it have to start so flipping early???

So, am I just grouchy, and need to leave the Internet for the next three months, or is anyone with me?

(And yes, I appreciate the irony that I have now started a Christmas thread. In August. But it was giving me the rage.)

I might sometimes pick something presents up if i see a good deal but absolutely no christmas stuff until after Halloween for gods sake. And no decorations or eating mince pies until December.

I like to do the present buying early because i have lots of family abroad, and three household members with Autumn birthdays, and I know from experience that if I don't do the shopping now, I'll end up forgetting to do it until mid December and spending around £100 on postage.

I don't really like Christmas but I always liked to get everything organised early. This year I've decided I'm just going to let it happen. Someone can invite us for christmas day and if not we will have it at home- I'm fed up being the one running around working out what everyone is doing and making sure everyone is happy. I imagine at some point in November I'll spend a couple of hours online buying all the presents- I don't like leaving that too late as shops in December are just hell.

YANBU

I think its silly when you see Christmas stuff next to back to school stuff, halloween, bonfire night etc.

And I've never bought presents throughout the year to put away for Christmas as I don't know that far in advance what people are actually going to want for Christmas!

And every year I always find that by the time I actually feel 'Christmassy' (usually not until the day itself) most people seem over it already! I used to work with someone who put their tree and decs up in early November then took everything down boxing day because they were over it by then. Peaked too early!

I follow my mother's tradition . Bimble along merrily completely oblivious until about the 20th , then think 'Shit ! Christmas !' And spend the next 4 days running about like a headless chicken dispatching DS and DH on various errands , and the ones who can't drive being put on parcel watch for the deliveries ordered late at night online . Christmas Eve means being at the butchers at o fuck o'clock because the queue is otherwise 200 people long , and my local farmers drop the vegetables off at some point in the day . Then DS comes back from Waitrose with whatever goodies were left over and due to go out of date which they've offered to staff at a pittance , and by 5pm , I've opened the sherry , and if we haven't got it, we're doing without.

Every year , I say 'next year I'll be more organised ' Have done since 1995 . Still not managed it .

Actually what really pisses me off is Easter Eggs alongside the Valentines cards , when Easter is in April .

Whoever said about the crafting channel - well of course they have to start early. Craft takes time. If I want to knit any presents I need to give myself at least a couple of months per present. And then there's the self-present I knit every year

Some people like anticipation and planning. Others like to be more in the moment. Too much one way or the other and you're probably really annoying to be around

The thing I do like about the shops starting to stock stuff Christmas early is that they have massive reductions on summer stuff, I got my garden furniture for £25 end of season, plus picnic rugs, flasks, camping stuff and garden bits for pennies.
Won't start shopping until end of November this year, otherwise I end up with 50 tubes of Pringles and endless chocolates and biscuits we really don't need.

It's because they have nothing else to look forward to. Straight after New Years the adverts start advertising summer holidays, so these people spend all that time waiting for summer then after their holidays they feel low and start looking for the next thing to look forward to which is Christmas.

I definitely was not searching pinterest and planning my new tree scheme. No Siree Bob, nothing to see here...

YANBU. I'm not interested in anything Christmas-related until mid-December. There were several Christmas movies on TV last weekend and I was very perplexed.

People deciding to buy gifts early doesn't bother me, but Christmas displays/marketing being put up months beforehand is ridiculous. Nobody needs a chocolate Santa in August.

I buy presents as and when I see something suitable at a good price.

It's not like a spend ages in August thinking about Christmas - let's face it's miles off and there's still lots to look forward to. But I dislike shopping so it's easier to pick something up whilst I'm doing something else than go on a specific Christmas shopping trip.

Although we do normally have the conversation about what we're doing for Christmas around this time of year.

I don't even mind non-perishable Christmas food out on display - my mum used to bung a couple of bits in with her weekly shop from September onwards and put it away until Christmas to make it more affordable.

But stuff that will be out of date before its remotely Christmassy is ridiculous.

My mum's birthday is on 21 November so when I was growing up we had a rule that Christmas prep didn't start until after that. I've carried that on - a month is quite enough.

I'm sick of posts talking about the magic of autumn and how great it is let alone fucking Christmas.

I'd quite like to skip all the stuff between September and March.

I fucking hate Christmas.

I would like it if I could wake up on Christmas morning in my own bed with DH, watch DD open a few gifts then have a glass of champagne and orange juice while I make smoked salmon bagels for everyone, make a roast in a relaxed fashion throughout the day in between lazing around in new PJs and eating Quality Street and watching TV.

In reality we have to alternate between visiting each others parents as they live at different ends of the country and we live somewhere in the middle. Whichever set we don't visit for Christmas day we see at new year. The whole period is spent dragging ourselves up and down the country and camping out in our childhood bedrooms. I'm terribly unreasonable for wanting to fuck it all off and stay home because it's all about family don't you know

I agree and I think it takes away the beauty of late summer and autumn.

I do think late summer gets seriously neglected, I'm sure when I was kid going back to school in September it was still very summery.

And it's not the weather. I'm in Yorkshire and the last few years it's been warm enough to sit out in beer gardens (or even normal gardens!) until late october. We certainly never used to cease all summer activities just because we were back at school.

Now people are all stews and extra blankets and nights drawing in from around this time. It's still 24 fucking degrees out there, and this last week has been some of the best weather we've had all summer.

Don't get me wrong, I like stews, blankets and coziness, but when it's actually cold. Last year we didn't even get a frost until mid December,

Crafter here and I always start making things about this time of year, if never make all my lovely things otherwise - I LOVE Christmas! From the 1st December it all begins in this house, along with the rolling eyes of DP, secretly he loves it too I think, along with his Christmas gringe role...

Don't think there is anything wrong with people discussing Christmas on MN (love the PP who pointed out this is a thread about Christmas not in the Christmas forum) it's easy if you don't like something hide the thread, I spent four days doing this with bloody Brexit.

But I don't like it in the shops yet, it is way too early and Christmas isn't mentioned until after my birthday in November ;) it's the law in this house :)

It is beyond me why non-Christians bother with Christmas. It is a religious festival and if you are not religious you shouldn't really bother. It seems to me that it is now used by commercial organisations to fleece the gullible into spending money they don't have on things people don't want/need. If you are not a Christian give it a miss.

Buying bargains in advance to save money it is fine imo.

What i would find scary is if my mum or mil planned everything even the seating around of table in August.
There is something very rigid and controlling about planning in detail everything in your life and it makes me think that those people are mean in their relanionships with others.
(i know it is huge generalization)

For me it's too early, I like to get new school term preferably half term out of the way before I think about it. Though one year I did my Christmas shopping the end of September due to logistics.

A friend has already posted a pic on FB of a Christmas laden shelf.

Oyster babe - you can say no! You can have the Christmas of your dreams. You might have to piss off a few people but trust me it gets easier after the first year of breaking with tradition. Could you invent some last minute car trouble...? Obv not now, the day before.

Any ways... I have to start shopping now as dhs birthday is right at the beginning of December and if I don't buy the thing he wants now it will sell out before the end of October like I discovered last year... And I work full time so I'd rather not spend my four days off in December madly doing everything in terrible weather. I'd rather spend those days watching Christmas films in my heated and decorated living room under a duvet with a hot chocolate...

the city - every culture has always celebrated a festival in the middle of winter. The winter solstice was hijacked by the christians, same as the churches were built on top of pagan places of worship. there are many layers to Christmas and christianity is a part of it, but not the whole thing by a long shot.

I am an official Bah Humbug person who does not like Christmas. I go along with it for the kids - within reason - but if someone gave me an elf for my shelf in August I'd probably shove it up their arse.

Discussion about Christmas should be banned until 1st December.

YAsoNBU. I love Christmas, but I don't even want to think about it til December 1st or thereabouts.