To think that Christmas was never meant to last a month

[CruCru]

The other day I was thinking about Christmas and realised that "in the olden days" it would have been only one or two days.

It feels as though all of December has so far been dedicated to Christmas. I am tired and jaded and "activity'd" out ... and we haven't even had Christmas yet.

It's meant to be 25th - 6th January (epiphany) traditionally.

No, it's too much.

A few days is plenty.

Our schools break up today and go back on 9th - we haven't even started yet!

As the song goes:

On the 33rd day of Christmas my true love gave to me...

I know exactly what you mean. I do like Christmas but it feels like its been here forever and its starting to feel a bit stale now. I was in a garden centre yesterday and they were starting to take the decorations down before Christmas day! I seem to hear the word Christmas a hundred times a day in various places which is starting to grate now and it seems a shame that by the time Christmas day actually arrives the excitement is lost a bit.

I'm with you OP. It's been weeks (looking at you Dobbies, with your decorations up in mid Oct) - I really cba with it now, and it's not even the 25th.

You're right - in the 'olden days' it was a long period of fire and feasting and celebrating the days getting longer again. Then Christians stole it and made it about Jesus, but kept 12 days of feasting that the locals were used to.

In my lifetime it seems to have moved forward a couple of weeks so that the celebrating all happens before Christmas day - when we were young we partied from Christmas day into the New Year, but all of that seems to have finished now, and invitations seem to dry up after Boxing day.

Dds birthday is the 19th and in an ideal world nothing christmasy would happen for us until the 20th. However you simply cannot avoid it. School trips to the panto; christmas parties; shops and adverts full of toys; people repeatedly asking dc what they want santa to bring them.

I agree. Despite the pressure I have manged to resist until today. Advent calendar and candle on 1st December, but that's it. Today is Ds's first day of Christmas holiday so I have just brought our real tree in and we will decorate it and the house together. Having said that he is 11 with severe learning difficulties so it will be me doing most of it whilst DH is at work.

Growing up in the 70s my wonderful late parents always did the same, usually because they were waiting for payday and had very little money.

I am very lucky not to be in that position but keeping it this way (what many would deem so late) keeps that little bit of a child alive in me.

Yanbu.

It's why I am so intolerant of so many Christmas threads on Mumsnet, which start in August usually. Yes, really.

I was shopping for day to day clothes for myself in November and nearly went insane with the Christmas songs in all the shops.

Totally agree, our local Co-Op had mince pies on AUGUST BANK HOLIDAY WEEKEND and it's been full on Christmas everything since Halloween. Sick to the back teeth of it.

Wasn't there a time when the poor had a little meat and drink and means of some warmth and that was it