Will Wizzard soon have their wish?

Halloween is now over for another year, so it must be time for Christmas, right?

No sooner have the kids collected all their party bags than the television, press, marketers and retailers are bombarding us with Christmas messages. Actually, that’s wrong, we’ve been subjected to Christmas since around September time and it appears to be getting earlier and earlier each year. Christmas used to come but once a year, now it comes every nine months, starting in the shops in September - even in August if you are in Harrods – and lasting until 1st January.

A survey conducted by GMIPoll found that almost half of those surveyed felt that the promoting of Christmas merchandise in the autumn was too soon. And, despite this early promotion, 2% still left their shopping until Christmas Eve (albeit the majority of these respondents were males or younger shoppers).

Certainly from November onwards, it is impossible to avoid the Christmas message. But, what is this message? Interestingly, it seems that more people believe in Santa Clause than Jesus. It appears that commercialism has hijacked the holiday to pass it off as another reason to spend all our money on gifts.

Some might argue that the stores add to the anticipation of the festive season. Some may even enjoy having the Christmas feeling around for longer and appreciate the extra planning time. And, surely Harrods, along with the other retailers would not waste their shelf space in August / September on Christmas products if they did not sell. So is it us, as consumers that are to blame for this early promotion of our favourite holiday?

In Ireland the minister for Social and Family Affairs, Mary Coughlan, has been trying to persuade businesses to impose a voluntary ban on early Christmas adverts because young families are being put under too much financial pressure in the months leading up to Christmas. So far, she’s had no success.

Looks like our 3 / 4 month Christmas is here to stay.