Wishing our lives away…
Posted: September 25, 2011 Filed under: Holidays & Festivals, Life, Shopping | Tags: christmas, easter, halloween, Holidays & Festivals, postaweek2011, Shopping 4 CommentsAs I was browsing the shelves in my local supermarket last weekend I happened to spot a nice little selection of chocolate reindeer. Beside them were gigantic tins of Quality Street. This can only mean one thing – Christmas is coming!
Except, unless I’m mistaken, it’s only September. Kids have only just gone back to school, and we haven’t had Halloween yet. Surely, if anything, the shops should be full of pumpkins and witches?!
I feel like every year is getting shorter, and people are in too much of a rush to move on to the next big thing. We all know Creme Eggs will be available to buy before Christmas Eve and, as much as I do love them and wish they were available all year round, that’s just wrong.
Let me compare England to Japan for a moment. In Japan, there is a very distinct changing of the seasons, and this is reflected in the goods available in the shops. But there is never any overlap. It’s simply not possible to buy Halloween goods and Christmas goods at the same time in Japan. In England, I sometimes wonder if it might actually be possible to buy reduced Halloween goods, Christmas goods, and early Easter goods all at the same time – late November, perhaps?!
I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t getting excited about Christmas already. I’ve seen some lovely Christmas cards in the shops, and I’m already imagining where I’m going to put my Christmas tree in my new flat. But I think we need to slow down. If we’re not careful, we’re going to forget to enjoy the moment completely.
So, what am I looking forward to right now? Moving house (again!) next weekend. That’s just about as far into the future as I want to go at the moment.
If you can’t help get excited, there are:
35 days until Halloween
90 days until Christmas
198 days until Easter
(Image source: I think I received it in an email once, but I don’t know whose image it is originally.)
AliMuskett.com 
nice post – and so true! Typically, my kids only (finally!) stop talking about Christmas each year around March, and are this year already starting to refer to their ‘letters to Santa. They have been very firmly banned from doing so (but that doesn’t stop them).
Thanks for stopping by. It must be hard to explain to kids that Christmas is still so far away when they can see Christmas stuff in the shops. Good luck!
The beginning of September, I ranted on twitter about advent calendars already on display not realising till my next visit to morrisons that they also had all their biscuit tins and chocolates in the very next aisle.
When I started in retail (mainly bookselling) there were clear seasonal promotion dates like you mention still happens in Japan. Halloween was always packed away long before any Christmas signage or products appeared.
I first noticed It start with calendars (regular not advent!), these gradually changed from mid November delivery and in the space of 10 years or so began to arrive earlier and earlier, now some shops display them June/July!
It’s madness, isn’t it? (>_<)