Day 5

Day 5

IT'S CHRISSTMASSSSSSS shopping and it's not even September.

Forward planning is crucial, especially where presents and the happiness of your children are involved, but the call to buy Christmas presents seems to come earlier and earlier each year. The wake-up call seems to come near the start of summer on teleshopping channels (which have largely been fading out in the UK for a while, but there are still a few going strong with their website distribution). You see a cheerful presenter, who may be wearing a Christmas jumper or antlers with bells on, selling you the design of tree that is going to be 'in season' this year, or the trendy toy that your kids will love. This might just be a 'me' problem, but I can't help but yell in my head "IT'S JUNE! YOUR STUDIO IS 30 DEGREES, WHY ARE YOU SELLING ME THIS NOW?!".  

I've even seen some plans that encourage you to start your Christmas shopping in January, after we've barely recovered from the previous Christmas. In a world that innovates and changes faster than it ever has before, I struggle to understand why people would want to buy things so early, especially 'trendy' things. A trendy toy that children are really interested in and want at the start of the year will, more often than not, be obsolete by the time you get to Christmas. Maybe I'm just getting older and things seem to happen earlier each year, or telemarketing industries are trying desperately to cling on to their peak season sales figures by making Christmas a year-round event. Either way, I look forward to the Christmas when the date for the sales has looped back to December 24th, and we all have a mad panic to buy and wrap everything in a day. 

Not that we don't still do that anyway...