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<\/p>\nI\u2019m no scrooge. I love Christmas. I love the lights illuminating the towns and bringing warmth to dark evenings. I love the chance to spend quality time with family. I love the look on my children\u2019s faces when they see that Santa has been. And, I freaking adore Lebkuchan, probably a bit too much. I\u2019m not religious, and I prefer to think of Christmas as a way of cheering us all up in the middle of winter, but I still can\u2019t help thinking that things have got a little out of hand.<\/p>\n
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I\u2019m writing this at the end of November and so far my son\u2019s school has asked for the following for the festive period:<\/p>\n
The last request probably irks me the most, mainly because they don\u2019t have any adult sized chairs so they\u2019re basically charging me to give myself backache sitting on a chair designed for a five-year-old for an hour, during which I may catch a glimpse of my child in the background in his key role as \u201csoldier number 6.\u201d We haven\u2019t even reached December and yet at the rate the school are taking my money, I\u2019m fearful there won\u2019t be anything left to buy any actual presents.<\/p>\n
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There is no escaping Santa anymore. When I was a kid, Santa did a parade in town and that was it. The rest of the time he was clearly really busy in the North Pole running his elf slave empire, which made perfect sense and helped to maintain the Santa myth. However, shops, soft play centres, garden centres, tourist attractions and even my local whisky distillery has cottoned on to the idea that Santa = Money. It\u2019s odd when you think about it, because we spend all year reinforcing our children with the idea that they shouldn\u2019t talk to strangers, and yet come December, we insist that they sit down next to a terrifying man with a large scary beard and tell him what toys they want.<\/p>\n
What is more, all these different appearances by Santa look pretty suspicious. Children in school talk to each other about where they are going to see Santa. My school is taking my son to see Santa at a farm. We\u2019re taking my son to see Santa at the distillery (I know, but the food is amazing). Santa is even coming to our street on his sleigh as part of the Rotary club\u2019s annual fundraising efforts. Anyone with half a brain can see that if Santa is spending all this time in my local area, he clearly can\u2019t be doing much in the North Pole. Which is why it shouldn\u2019t have come as much of a surprise to me to hear my just turned five son say the other night \u201cMummy, Santa isn\u2019t real, it\u2019s just different men dressed up\u201d. Too many Santas have ruined the illusion.<\/p>\n
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Shops have always been keen to get their Christmas displays in early on, driving up their sales. As soon as Halloween is over the aisles are cleared of spooky costumes, sweets, and fake blood and are replaced with Christmas jumpers, more sweets, and fake Christmas trees.<\/p>\n
However, now it seems that others are following the trend, with many people putting up their Christmas decorations up in early November. As a result, my son has spent last three weeks asking when we will put up our tree and it\u2019s not even December yet! His excitement levels are starting to peak and I\u2019m worried he\u2019ll crash and burn before we even reach mid-advent.<\/p>\n
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If you haven\u2019t heard of Elf on the Shelf then you must be living in some sort of anti-Christmas bubble, and I\u2019d like to join you. The idea originated in America, where in 2005 authors, Carol Abersand and Chanda Bell, wrote a tale of elves that leave the North Pole and spy on children to report back to Santa about who is naughty and who is nice. The book comes with an elf toy and has spawned lots of copies.<\/p>\n
Parents maintain the illusion of an elf spy by moving the toy around the house each night and children are told not to touch it in case they break the magic. In recent years, the idea has rapidly increased in popularity. This has been fuelled by social media images of elves in increasing bizarre predicaments, some more appropriate than others. with parents coming up with creative ways to continue the elf\u2019s story.<\/p>\n
This is lovely if you have both the time and the inclination to spend each evening doing an elf activity. But I, personally, am glad my children have remained largely oblivious to the phenomena. I worry that it is just another way for parents who are struggling with juggling work, carrying out commitments and worries about money to feel guilty about their inability to provide this experience for their child. Elf on the Shelf simply adds another task to an already full list. Plus the official Elf on the Shelf has an uncanny resemblance to Chucky and that can\u2019t be good.<\/p>\n
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Remember when advent calendars consisted of a piece of card with flaps that when opened revealed a festive image? If you were really lucky, and your parents were feeling generous, you got one with a tiny morsel of chocolate in for each day. Then, in the late 1990s, Lego started releasing advent calendars with mini Lego sets in for each day. In 2011, the company released their first Lego Star Wars advent calendar and the advent calendar market was permanently changed. Now practically every toy manufacturer has jumped on the advent bandwagon, with everything from Disney characters to craft items available. There are even those aimed at toddlers, as if toddlers can understand the concept of advent.<\/p>\n
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