Christmas

Is it getting even earlier this year

I went to London for my birthday, 6th Sept about 40yrs ago and Selfridges already had their Christmas dept open!

How can it be happening so soon when there is so much austerity, hardship and poverty now in our country?

I think the idea is, owd codger , is that families who are struggling can spread the cost over the coming weeks. So they say!

Are they moving it from 25th of December?

Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat,
Please to put a penny in the old man's hat.
If you haven't got a penny a ha'penny will doo.
If you haven't got a ha'penny, then God bless yoo .....

Why should Christmas 'cost'? That's not what it's about! It follows that the true reason for Christmas has been forgotten. I wonder how many atheists, who deny Christianity, celebrate Christmas for their own reason?
We all know it's true purpose is to celebrate the birth of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer!

I know Muslims who celebrate Christmas, but not in a religious sense

Let's keep it in December...where it's always been.

In Preston yesterday, apart from the appalling rain, you could buy your Christmas cards. On the freeview channel 71 you can now listen to all the Christmas songs and by the time Christmas comes we will be sick of them.

Christmas should be a week or two not a quarter of the year!

Shops etc a month maybe, but not Christmas events, that's ridiculous! But hey - the longer it is the more money is earned!

Well going back, you never heard anything about Christmas until after Bonfire Night, and then it was only towards the end of November, but come the 1st of December it took off, but if you saw a Christmas Tree in someones window during the first week of December, that would attract negative comments.

When I was at junior school nothing happened about Christmas till well into December and as a kid it felt a magical time but we knew what Christmas was really about.

retep1949 said:

"and as a kid it felt a magical time but we knew what Christmas was really about"

So did we

We weren’t brought up in a religious family but, as a child in the 50s, I loved the lead-up to Christmas with the Nativity plays, the excitement of it all, and we really appreciated the presents we got.

Because I observe no man-made religion, but respect others that do, it has come to the point where it has started to gear up long before the due date, and I find that rather nauseating.

People do have more time to shop more leisurely and spread their money over a longer period of time, but when you hear of parents spending £200 on a video gaming machine, or £150 for a pair of trainers, or £500 for a smart phone for six year old Billy, and other expensive nonsense, I have to believe that they’re buying with credit cards, meaning they rack up a lot of money which they don’t have the cash to pay for, so they get into debt for which they pay monthly for a year until the next “special event”. That’s madness. I couldn’t live like that. If I don’t have the cash, I do without.

Christmas is now just a money-making scheme and, unfortunately, many people pay through the nose on something which won’t last long with kids today.

Christmas is coming and the Tories are getting fat, so please put a two pence in Whups hat, If you have not got a two pence, a one pence will do, but if you have not got a one pence, Whups will yell Bah, Humbug to you!

I thought this topic was about Christmas! Do we really have to bring politics into every thread? It's boring, tedious and tiring.

It's going to be a not so merry christmas for many after the 30th of October.
Expect more cuts for those who already struggling.

I was the youngest of 6 kids and my mother used to start Christmas shopping in what was then the January sales. I can remember getting The Dandy a selection box an apple and orange and a small Dinky toy and anything else could be shared between the 6 of us.We were happy with our presents

I was one of seven children and by comparison to most other similar sized families, we were quite lucky really. I never did get a bike of my own, although I did get my brothers hand me down., even though it did have a cross bar. Lol I still bare the scars from countless tumbles onto pebbled roads while learning to ride it. Lol.

Jathbee now I was the opposite learned to ride my sisters bike which was too big for me and in the end they put wooden blocks on the pedals so I could reach them when sat on the cycle

You were lucky to have wooden block to reach the pedals, I had to make do with riding my brother's bike through the cross bar lol. I eventually managed to to ride it properly. That's when the tumbles began. Got a bit over confident and started to speed up, applied the brakes wrongly and came a cropper a few times, until I was instructed by a very nice young man on how they should be applied. We became great friends and went on many a journey together. I was devastated when the family moved away. But soon found a few girls to go bike riding with. Rode a bike for many, many years until I got a small motor bike to travel to work on, in later years.

I remember one Christmas as a child of about 11/12 years old. The teachers were choosing players for the Nativity and who was to be Mary, Joseph, three Wise Men and the Angel Gabriel, and other angels.

I sat there looking up and hoped I would be picked, and the Head Teacher said to another teacher, “what about little Mollie?” I’ve never forgotten what that other teacher said. She looked down at me, and said: “Oh no, we couldn’t possibly have a dark angel.” They wanted a fair skinned child with blue eyes, but I didn’t fill the brief. That hurt me very much, but I wondered why god didn’t love me just because I was darker than the other kids.

Of course, all these years later, I realise what a clumsy remark that was, and I wish I could have seen her again long after I left as I would have told her about it. Good job I didn’t tell my mum though as she would have caused chaos at school.

On Preston bus station this morning the board in the barbers shop window tells us it’s 60 days to Christmas.