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Christ, again, already

Today is Friday the 12th of November. Two days ago, they filled the Melbourne City Square with gargantuan Christmas decorations.

Today is the 12th of November.

Taking this to herald the official onset of Christmas in Melbourne—an assumption many people, particularly retail workers, would consider conservative—we must recognise the consequence: this year the festive season will last for a month and a half. That is, an entire 45 days out of a possible 365 are taken up with the celebration of whatever it is Christmas signifies in the present age. Extrapolating, one concludes that—if the current margin does not blow out—eight point one percent of our whole lives are Christmas.

This is clearly oppressive.

Just think, if we could possibly compress the yuletide, how much more wondrous, how much more magical, it would be. I swear I would sing those carols lustily, in full voice, if I only heard them a few days each year. (As it stands I scurry from any store that plays them.)

I believe we should set the target at approximately 1 percent of our lives, with a further .5 percent given over to the associated tasks—like buying and wrapping gifts, marinating the turkey, etc. This gives us a generous 5 days of potent, heady Christmas, freeing up a full 360 other days in which to get stuff done unharried by interminable carols or ridiculous oversized baubles or cloying and wholly false goodwill.

Joseph | | Comments(7)

Comments

Miranda

Oh no, no, no! I love Christmas, in an entirely secular, consumerist way. For me, the spiritual thing about Christmas lies in the myth (?) of Father Christmas rather than in Jesus stuff. I’d be happy if decorations went up in October. The entire season is glossy and marvellous and makes me beam at strangers.

Danielle

Believe it or not the decorations went up a few weeks ago in Perth.

We might be behind the rest of the country in everything else, but we sure know how to stretch out Christmas like a bunch of desperately sad people clinging to a piece of plastic joy.

Iancapa

It’s beginning to look a lot like the United States of America, everywhere I go….

da da dadda da daad a da daaaaaaaa da da da dada

david hopkins

I have to say I wholeheartly agree! Its absolutle crazy how early this stuff is starting this year. I live in England and there is an alarming number of christmasy commercials on TV now and its not even december. It should be against the law to promote christmas until at least December.

Angus

I couldn’t believe it this year in Germany, decorations, Xmas food etc for sale in the last week of September! I’m from the commercial buy-buy-buy world of N America, but….September?! We need more holidays in between. Back home there’s Hallowe’en which is a natural barrier which can’t be bypassed. Xmas can’t come before Nov 1, which is now generally when it does arrive.

bigtree.smallaxe

Well it could be a good thing. If we start having Christmas so damn early in the year we should consequently start holidays earlier as well. Think about it. I’m ready to put up with the sickness I feel in my stomach when I am continually reminded of the commercialisation of Christmas as long as I’m feeling sick when it’s holidays!

I think the whole concept of Christmas would be better if we renamed it so as to fully reveal why we are compelled to feel that the only way to appreciate or be appreciated is with a $10 gift from a bargain bin.

CHRISTMAS - - - - - > CAPITALISTMAS

considering there is no celebration of the birth of Christ anymore I don’t see why we should blame Him for this mess.

HAPPY CAPITALISTMAS TO YOU ALL

Glennette

To each his own, but personally I love Christmas. I’m thankful I live in Georgia (USA) rather than where you all live because it’s most definitely about Christ here. There are beautiful and inspirational Christmas musicals celebrating the birth of Christ. We even have live nativity scenes where we are willing to freeze for a few hours each night to portray the Christmas story in a real way.

Sure, Christmas has become too commercialized and often people let themselves get carried away but it’s a choice people make. I enjoy buying gifts for family and friends but I do it because I love them and I love celebrating the birth of Christ, not because the stores want me to do it.

I’m glad I came across this page because you all reminded me how much I truly LOVE Christmas! My father passed away August 31st and I’ve been having a hard time getting in the spirit but I think in an odd way, you’ve helped me remember what’s best about Christmas, to those of us who really enjoy the season that is!

Merry Christmas!