h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Not only have the retailers and TV advertisements gone into full Christmas mode, now my Christmas cactus has already started to bloom. Maybe it just wants to get it over with as badly as I do.

Hmmm... if that's the same of cactus that I'm thinking of, we call it November cactus over here, because that's when it usually starts to bloom. Have you been having a lack of daylight lately that might have triggered it to start blooming early?

And this is the kind of cactus I'm thinking of:
http://www.odla.nu/artiklar/images/bilder/novemberkaktus.jpg

Yep. That's it. Lovely things. And it usually blooms for me at Christmas or very close, at least. I don't remember it ever blooming quite this early before.

It has been cloudy a lot lately. Perhaps that has caused it.

Nope, it's a little computer chip they implanted in the root system that delivers a flower blooming protein marker when triggered by the sound of "jingle bells" played in every other television and radio commercial.

Sychronicity (or the "Lattice of Coincidence"), Here's the next article I read: http://consumerist.com/2009/11/scientific-proof-that-christmas-creep-is-evil.html

Christmas cactus... that'll be a Zygocactus Truncatus then (cactus )

At least you have Thanksgiving Day as a sort of natural break to kick off the Christmas frenzy - there's nothing like that in the UK. You see hints of Christmas as early as September sometimes, before we've even had Bonfire Night ger cryin out loud! The Christmas lights have already been switched on in Oxford Street and Regent Street, I believe.

The thing is, a majority of us may dislike it, but the retailers don't care. They know there is nothing we can do about it. The only way to show displeasure is to refuse to purchase anything at any retailer that displays Christmas decorations or gifts before Thanksgiving. Which means we'd have to be well stocked in advance since that would rule out just about every store.

Along this line, Syn and I have already decided not to watch any commercial TV (except his football and the local news) until after Christmas. f course I have enough DVDs for several households and he has a lot. Not nearly as many as I have, but a lot.

I must be lucky: so far the only people dealing in Christmas on telly here in NM are the foreign car makers. But then, as I rarely leave the house, I don't have to suffer xmas overexposure this year.

Ooh, thanks for reminding me. There is one room in our building I'll have to avoid for the rest of the year. The girls working in there bring in all their crimbo music and play it on constant loop until the new year. I hate crimbo music... No, I really, really do.

You know which song I really hate? The Twelve Days of Christmas. I want to hurl every time I hear it. I'm not much more fond of the Little Drummer Boy.

Ahhh another kindered sprit.............

The sad thing is that I used to love Christmas. Now it is just an annoyance and an obligation to be merry and spend money.

I guess we all loved Christmas when we were kids because of the toys and presents. When we got older we loved it because of the presents and the food. A little older, the presents and the food and the booze and getting together with friends. A little older still, it's some or all of that stuff plus a welcome break from work.

As some of us get older we get cynical about the over-commercialisation of Christmas and, noticeably, in a way we don't about certain other celebrations and public holidays. It's difficult to judge though, how commercialised Christmas was when we were kids. We didn't notice that sort of thing. For sure, it seems to start earlier each year, or rather, we sometimes see signs of it before it feels like summer is over and imagine that it's starting earlier.

I'm in a fortunate position. I have no kids, I have no television and I live in a place where it's still warm and sunny well into December, so Christmas doesn't become apparent to me until, well, until it happens. I like that. I mean, today was like what I consider a pleasant summer day in London and it sure doesn't feel to me like Christmas is less than a month away.

I am hoping to get my Christmas shopping completed next week. Then I can hibernate!

I just hate the music. It... gets stuck... in my... heeeed!

And I spoke too soon. Tonight's tv viewing revealed more commercial bandwagon-jumping.

Now I come to think about it, this won't be an easy Christmas.

Dear Count Zero, ~What is crimbo music please

Christiane
AR80

25/11/09 7.35 GMT

>>As some of us get older...>>>

Don't we all?

Actually, I still like parts of Christmas, like putting up electric Christmas candelabras on the window sills and putting them on timers, so that the one in the kitchen is lit just before it's time to get out of bed, and the one in my living room just before I get home from w*rk (so nice to come home to a flat filled with lights rather complete darkness), especially since the sun has set before I have even left the office.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c3/Elektrisk_adventsljusstake.JPG/250px-Elektrisk_adventsljusstake.JPG

This is traditionally done on the first Advent Sunday (this coming weekend). It's also traditionally the day major department stores unveil their lavishly decorated display windows - although I heard one of the biggest ones in Stockholm unveiled theirs one week early this year

Christiane, I'm talking about Christmas carols and all such that we're bombarded with for over a month at this time of year. Every other commercial on television or radio, coworkers playing it in their offices, playing on the piped in 'musak' in every store. What I hate the most though is when it's played in restaurants. This time of year I end up eating lunch at a lot of Chinese, Mexican and Indian restaurants but even some of those aren't safe. If we weren't overloaded enough with just the ubiquity of it I also am very susceptible to "musicosis", that horrible affliction where you get a song stuck in your head and it won't go away.

Just a few bars of Jingle Bell Rock will echo in my head for hours... even now, just thinking of the title I can hear it coming... AAAHH!

'Jinkgle Bell Rock' is a Christmas carol?

*grumble* The whole holiday went south when they took Mithras out of his birthday celebration.

Bring back the true meaning of the solstice!

And where's my wicker man smiley???