BAM! Christmas is here now you’ve heard that song. It’s scary, but a month today you’ll be pulling crackers with Nan and donning the paper hats as you tell the jokes even Russell Brand thinks are awful.

It’s a scientific fact. That song gets most people in the Christmas mood the most. My sources? The same institution which says that 76.4% of statistics are made up on the spot.

There’s no agreed date when you should break out the decorations. Everyone knows some tacky bloke that puts them up in October, or even keeps them up permanently. When I was back home well over a month ago, I saw some decorations on the way there. I couldn’t actually believe it. I hadn’t thought about Christmas, yet.

Shops always get Christmas decorations out insanely early, don’t they? As soon as Halloween’s out the way, it’s all the fake blood and fangs to the ‘Reduced to Clear’ basket, and on the shelves sit baubles and fake, animated Father Christmases (Have you seen the ones they have in ASDA? Oh god. If you haven’t, make sure you’ve got someone with you when going down the Christmas aisles…). I was in Poole’s branch of Wilkinson’s on the 11th and vividly remember noticing the Christmas songs playing in the background when they finished the minute’s silence. That chilled my soul more than the silence.

I hate shops doing that. It zaps all the magical fun out of Christmas. Me only being 18, Christmas time in my head is filled with 2 weeks off school, all the family getting together and playing games we’d only ever play on Christmas Day (I’m looking at you, dusty box of Articulate in the conservatory!).

But it’s not just shops with their decorations. It’s the TV, too. Thankfully, I don’t have a TV in my room, so escape the majority of Christmas adverts this year, but  I remember sofas being advertised as ‘making a happier Christmas’ when I was back at home that weekend. It triggers the sad, obsessed people to put up their decorations way too early, and they surely get bored of them by the time Christmas actually rolls around, let alone eaten all the chocolate off the tree…

So what day should we put decorations up? Is there a definitive day Christmas starts?

I was hoping some bored University student could put much lusted-after Government funding into finding out the date, but it doesn’t seem to have happened yet. So let’s set one ourselves. Let’s look at the facts:

• Americans generally get all Christmassed up after Black Friday – which this year is the 27th. This is the kick-start to gift-buying in the US, but decorations can go up as early as October in some stores.
• The last holiday celebrated en masse in the UK is probably Halloween. So festivities can start any time after October 31st.
• The BBC decorate their studios from roughly four weeks until Christmas.
• Advent Calendars – generally the signal that Christmas is here for small children – start on December 1st. It’s saddening that Children know it’s Christmas because a door on Hannah Montana’s torso has a ’25′ on it, but there you go.

To me, December is Christmas month. Maybe it’s something to do with the last bullet point, I don’t know. But the BBC have hit it on the head, I’d say. Four weeks before Christmas is fine by me.

Write it in your diaries, people. Put your decorations up on the 4th December. Happy days will then be here. =]

Trackback URL - Share on Plurk

Tags: blog, December, Eric, game, May, October, Poole, Sam, university, YouTube