(~6 minutes to read)
This weekend marks the beginning of the Christmas Fayre/Market season in our area. Mrs. H. will be singing carols to market-goers, and one of our friends will be at two or three markets a week until the week before Christmas.
“Bah, humbug” is my normal and expected comment on all this. I struggle to get into the festive spirit much before Christmas Eve, yet some people wish it was Christmas every day (cue the Wizzard song, which incidentally is one of my favourite Christmas ditties.)
This year, a store in St-Pierre-Jolys, Manitoba has taken something of a stand on early Christmas. They are leaving their “seasonal” shelves bare until after November 11th, except for a sign that says, “Lest We Forget”. Their reasoning is that people make such a big deal out of Christmas that it overshadows Remembrance observances. And I personally agree.
Perhaps the Manitoba store was inspired by a CBC report from a year ago that an Ottawa lady in Florida had taken the argument eleven days further. “I think it should be illegal to have Christmas music in stores before Halloween! Who will sign my petition?” she tweeted. And yes, she got support. The CBC report also contained findings from a survey of a selection of large retailers in Canada. Shoppers Drug Mart apparently won’t play any Christmas music until December 1st (Thank you, Shoppers! But I will be checking!) For franchise stores such as Canadian Tire and Home Hardware, it’s up to the individual owners to decide. The people at Home Depot and Indigo apparently agree on the November 11th date (although this year, both companies’ websites had Christmas plastered all over their websites by November 7th.)
My own personal record for hearing premature Christmas music was set back in England in the late ‘80s. A UK equivalent of Home Hardware was playing Christmas songs on September 24th. I have no evidence to back that up, but I remember it because I was so shocked that I made it one of my “missions in life” to remember the date. (Yes, my mind works in weird ways. Off topic, but another “mission in life” I gave myself was to remember WPC Yvonne Fletcher’s name, because I remember her parents saying at the time of her murder that although her name was in everyone’s mind, she would soon be forgotten. As it’s turned out, she wasn’t. There is a memorial to her at the site of her murder and there was a service for her there in 2014, on the 30th anniversary of her death.)
On the off-chance that you’re one of the few that believes tinsel archways in hardware stores in September have anything to do with the coming of a Saviour, it’s time to wake up and smell the Christmas tree fragrance spray. The reason Christmas starts so early stems from the fact that it’s such a huge commercial event.
Countless businesses rely on Christmas sales to “subsidize” the rest of their year.
Countless jobs depend upon the consumer frenzy that is the acquisition of gifts (sarcasm on) that the recipients won’t judge you for (sarcasm off).
Countless kids have to have their picture taken on Santa’s knee (assuming that’s allowed these days!).
Countless toys for girls and boys (and big girls and boys; and persons whose gender is undefined or irrelevant) have to be manufactured and shipped and shelved.
It just wouldn’t be possible to make all this happen in a timespan that starts decently close to December 25th. Imagine the logistics involved in having enough stock to satisfy that scale of demand in a tenth of the time. Imagine going into a store to buy anything in that compressed timespan.
Imagine the lineups at Santa’s Grotto!
Quite simply, with the exception of Santa, it would be physically impossible to “do Christmas” in the week leading up to the day – unless we stop all the ridiculous consumerism (“Well he bought for me last year, so I have to buy for him this year.” Or, “I can’t just buy her a sweater – she’ll think I’m cheaping out!” Or, “we have to buy something for all the neighbours honey – after all, they might buy something for us…”) – not that I believe that culling consumerism is the best way to go, you understand…
So; I said, “with the exception of Santa…” Let me explain.
Santa is one of the “being economical with the truth” things we all do with our kids (not true; I recently heard of one family that doesn’t…), and yes, it does make the appearance of all the gifts on Christmas Day “magical”. So somehow, that magic needs to be preserved.
The boomer generation is ageing. Those that have hair are likely grey-haired, possibly white. That means there are a lot of qualified Santas out there. My idea is as follows. (If you’re an entrepreneur, feel free to run with it!)
Convert a seasonal box store into a giant Santa’s grotto complex. Line the internal perimeter with grottos, and have a Santa in every one. At the entrance to the building is a departure terminal, where kids and their parents board a car/cart. The cart makes its way through a “valley” (backdrops depicting mountains and snow) to a central hub, where it starts revolving on the spot, while lights flash and sparkles sparkle. At this point, the cart is selecting a vacant Santa. When it identifies one, it makes its way along the appropriate valley/corridor to that particular Santa’s grotto, where the obligatory ho ho ho, knee-sit and photo all happen. Another cart (totally enclosed – no windows – but with themed displays on LCD screens) whisks the happy bratlings and their parents back to the terminal, where they can wax lyrical about how cool Santa was, etc.
Stores could sponsor a Santa, and in so doing they could put coupons and gift certificates into whatever loot bag Santa doles out. They could even run a shuttle service from “Santaland” to their nearest store. There could be a themed restaurant. Reindeer petting zoo. Etc. etc.
This idea solves so many problems. You can take your kids to see Santa without having to walk past all the toys on the way; you needn’t take your kids to see Santa until a week before Christmas; most importantly, it would give a large number of ageing boomers a few weeks’ employment and expose them to other people’s grandchildren, which would make them appreciate their own all the more.
The idea seems so simple that I can’t believe it hasn’t already been done. Granted, the amount of up-front money required is prohibitive, but apart from that…
In the meantime – to paraphrase a line from “Calendar Girls” – deck your halls; stuff your goose; and make sure your ding dongs are merrily on high. After all – the Christmas in your mirror is closer than it appears, so you need to be out there, visiting the Christmas fayres, soaking in the festive spirit, and listening to people like Mrs. H. churning out those Christmas chestnuts.
Merry Christmas Shopping!
In our family, there are so many birthdays in November, we are prohibited to even think about Xmas until after the last of them on 24th. This is also the date that the Christmas Markets start in Cologne and given that most our our traditional British traditions (trees, yule logs, glass baubles) were all imported from Germany it seems fitting that 25th November is a reasonable date to start the Xmas run-up. It leaves enough shopping days to get all the stuff without which it’s impossible to “do” Christmas.