Rant No 1 Christmas

Today its 1/12/08 of course the first day of advent but already I have had enough of Christmas 08. The whole issue started about 2 months ago, yes 2 months ago when a couple people I know asked the hated question of the year "have you done your Christmas shopping yet?" Of course the answer was a rather firm errrr no its October I have not even considered fireworks for bonfire night let alone Christmas! The constant television adverts with Christmas music etc etc. It all came ahead when I went into the Canteen in Uni a fortnight ago when in the doorway I saw the most dreaded thing "A CHRISTMAS TREE" personally I wanted to hid it in a store cupboard with a note attached saying its November not December! This evening I saw the house on North Road with the insane amount of lights on the outside, enough for an airport runway. That was it I had to rant about the commericalisation of Christmas and how it has lost its true meaning. Even if you don't believe in the Christian Faith, surely Christmas was supposed to be a day where family and friends come together and have an enjoyable day? It seems now that everyone gets stressed not days not weeks but months in advance trying to find the present for this person that person etc etc etc. Personally I feel this defeats the purpose of Christmas. Maybe with this credit crunch with people having effectively no money to spend on presents and insane amounts of food and drink that the true meaning of Christmas will reveal itself or am I being Naive?