Christmas needs to go.
No I do not mean the holiday itself. What I mean is all the Christmas carols, decorations and lights, at least until Dec. 1.
Call me Scrooge but it really gets on my nerves to see evidence of Christmas everywhere I go.
It seems like every year it just keeps getting earlier.
Remembrance Day was on Friday and by Monday the City was already putting the Christmas decorations up and houses already had their Christmas lights on.
I really do not understand why we need to see and hear about Christmas for two months before it happens.
Christmas is supposed to be a religious holiday celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ but today it seems to be more about commerciality than Christianity.
Over time, especially in Canada we have become more multi-cultural, which has caused the religious part of Christmas to diminish, which is fine.
But if we are not celebrating Christmas we should be focused on family and friends.
The lead up to Christmas should be spent looking forward to spending time with the people in your life who are important, yet we seem to be more worried about when we are going to get our Christmas decorations put up, or when our tree is going to go up or how we are going to afford to pay for all the gifts we have to buy people.
The gift of togetherness should be the only gift we worry about.
The holiday season should provide comfort and relaxation, yet quite often you see people who are extremely stressed out.
According to Statistics Canada, in December 2014, Canadians spent $7 billion on food and beverages, televisions and audio and video equipment, toys, games and hobby supplies, computer hardware and software, small electrical appliances, tableware, kitchenware, cookware and bakeware, cosmetics and fragrances, sporting goods, stationary, cards gift wrap and party supplies, jewelery and watches and camera and photographic equipment.
That includes all purchases made in that month, not just for Christmas, but they also include the monthly average for 2014, which sat at $5.2 billion dollars, an increase of approximately $1.8 billion.
The increase represents an increase of just over 25 per cent in spending in the month of December.
Why are we doing this to ourselves?
We spend so much time building up this day that once it happens it almost feels anti-climatic once it comes because we have been building up to it for two months.
How many people can remember even half of the Christmas gifts that they received?
I can admit I do not.
So why are we doing it if they are going to be forgotten about anyway?
Having said that I can remember some of the gifts that I received and some of them I will never forget because they were both meaningful and were pretty great gifts.
But why can we not just give those gifts any time of year?
Why are we forcing ourselves to spend all this money and buy all these gifts for this holiday?
This idea of commercializing Christmas needs to go.
Stop putting Christmas decorations up in November.
Sure they look nice, but they can look nice from Dec. 1 on, there is no need to have them looking nice for two months.
This Scrooge has had enough.
