To think Christmas was better before it started mid October and there were beauty advent calenders etc?

[malificent7]

I love Christmas but it is becoming increasingly out of hand. Popped into Hungry Horse pub in September and they had a frickin Christmas tree up to advertise their December menu.
Why are there now £100 gin advent calenders and as much as i love decorations do we really need piles of tat everywhere?. I think it is more magic if it starts later and there is less pressure to spend squillions.
Aibu to think it has gone a bit crackers?

( pardon the pun.)

Yanbu

And I Loathe Christmas Eve boxes.
My kids get more than enough on Christmas morning.. why do they need themed PJs and tat on Christmas Eve?!

I did Lego/Playmobil Advent calendars* once or twice when my older two were primary age, but have reverted now to a refillable one with a sweet in for each child, and a new decoration each the day we do the tree, which is usually the Saturday before the 4th Sunday in Advent (and it stays up until Twelfth Night. Seems so very joyless to whip it down the minute Boxing Day arrives). The Advent wreath goes on the table on the 1st Sunday in Advent and we light a new candle each Sunday. On St Nicholas they get sweets and choc coins in their shoes as per tradition, although I know some of their classmates get proper presents. Tbh it's a bit easier in Germany not to get swept up in the madness because it's all a bit more restrained.

*why do fewer and fewer people capitalise 'Advent' in the phrase 'Advent calendar' these days?

I hate having Xmas rammed down my throat from the end of October, it's so frigging unnecessary. I'm going away this year because I just can't be arsed with it anymore. Bah humbug.

It really doesn't bother me, although I don't think any of it does start in mid-October. I like the town's lights being switched on early, it cheers up a miserable season. I just wish Christmas fell later in winter, so the cheer isn't over and done with while there are still months of darkness to get through.

Yanbu. I saw an advert for a love honey advent calender. £100 for a new sex aid to countdown to the birth of christ. I don't know whether I should laugh or cry at that. I certainly can't afford it.

That's late-stage capitalism for ya.

In John Lewis today I saw a beauty advent calendar, it was £150 and security tagged. The world has gone bonkers

I don’t want Xmas themed PJs, so I just don’t buy Xmas themed PJs. You can put them out on Oct or Dec - I’m still not buying them. I don’t care that they’re there though. I don’t feel any pressure to buy something, just because someone is selling it.

A couple of the instructors at the gym I go to have been playing Christmas music for the last few weeks. I have expressed my disgust and was told "they like Christmas". You can 'like' Christmas but that doesn't mean you have to start in in November FGS. 1st Dec is still early enough in my opinion.

I don’t think the people writing those 12 days of Chris memes really understand that the 12 days of Christmas begin on the 25th December and so hardy any of December is the 12 days of Christmas so that’s just plain stupid, unless they think people shouldn’t Christmas shop until Christmas Day??[santa]

Live and let live if you want a Christmas Ginvent calendar get one, if you have al of your shopping done already, well done you. If you put your decs up at home already, well it’s not for me but whatever makes you happy.
Personally I like the run up, I like to shop early but probably finish on the 23rd Dec, I like to put my decorations up between the 10th and the 15th. I love an advent calendar but I think I would rather spend £100 on three bottles of Gin rather than get a gin advent, (though I wouldn’t turn down a naked marshmallow one ) I do the elf and I like to go to random Christmas things in November. I love to visit Dobbies at the end of October as it looks and smells beautiful but I won’t listen to Christmas songs until December which is when I get out my ultra cosy Santa hat which is a thermal hat and living in Scotland I need it and it’s super festive. I order food on the 1st of November. We buy things of course we do but we don’t make it about those things we make it about the Christmas spirit and each other. It’s always been commercialised since I was young 35 years ago but it’s easy to keep the heart and soul if you want too.

Also like to have a festive star Wars cinema trip

Enjoy Christmas your way and leave others to theirs.

I wear my Christmas pyjamas all year round, although the Ocado driver was a bit surprised when I opened the door wearing a fluffy reindeer pyjama top a couple of weeks ago 🤣

YANBU. And before elf on the shelf, North Pole breakfast and the rest of the shit.

Also does my head in the people who are all "well you don't have to join in, it's not compulsory" but it's IMPOSSIBLE to avoid when as soon as Halloween is past it's wall to wall festive. Just awful.

Roll on 2nd jan. fresh start. Nights getting shorter. November and December can do one.

Could not agree more!

Yadnbu

YANBU

YANBU.
I was in a Remembrance Sunday parade yesterday in a town centre. As we marched past one shop, it's doors were wide open, blasting out 'All I want for Christmas is Youuoooooo'. The incongruity of the cheesy music with the solemnity of the parade was quite stark.

I really feel for the poor retail staff who have to listen to it on endless repeat for 8 weeks of the year.

Crikey @MissMarpletheMurderer those decorations must be pretty dusty after being up for 39 years!

I love Christmas but people having a ‘Rudolph day’ once a month is a step too far even for me.

I was pleasantly surprised at how small the Christmas section was today at Wilko... Only three aisles (their normal seasonal section) instead of the 827363 aisles elsewhere. Dobbies, however... Can fuck off, with their 24 aisles of overly priced tat.

Unfortunately there is now so much "controversy" around Christmas as a Christian celebration that the capitalist lions have just pounced on their prey.
Couple being PC with massive US influence and this is what you get.
I prefer the European stance that Christmas is a festival of love, first and foremost, and not about conspicuous consumption.

For me it's the constant 'events' that are pissing me off- and they've started already. Santa's grotto, breakfast with Santa, the Santa steam train etc. Even if you don't take the DC to these, by the time they've seen Santa at nursery/Christmas fayre/school trips to Santa in the woods (yes that's a thing) etc they're bored by him. And the cynic in me thinks people only do it for the social media photo #makingmemories. It's not magical anymore. When I was a kid we might have seen him at a Xmas party or going past on the Rotary sledge but that was it..... Bah Humbug!

I have never heard of "rudolph days" but having googled.... my my there are some barking mad people out there.

Shop through the year if you want to, squirrel cards and wrapping away, make plans. But don't call it "Rudolph Day" and don't turn christmas into this massive thing which takes 11 dedicated days to plan for.

I volunteer in a charity shop, one of a large chain. We had an edict from head office to get christmas cards out on 26th August. So taking into account the sale in January, that means for SIX MONTHS of the year we have cards out for sale. Madness.

YANBU

The ante appears to be getting upped every year - Christmas PJs, Christmas duvet sets etc

The excesses put families on a meagre budget under immense pressure to 'keep up'.

I agree. When I was a child you got a little picture behind the door of an advent calendar, no chocolate, let alone anything else and I remember being so excited opening it each day, just to see what picture it was! The thing I really hate though is the letters from Santa to kids. It's totally over the top IMO

£100 for a new sex aid to countdown to the birth of christ

I dunno...ties in quite nicely to the thought of the first coming.