Bingle Jells, Bingle Jells

I took myself off on my weekly jaunt into town to do the shopping.

Once there, I went into K-Mart for some Aussie sweets to send to my brother in Denmark - sea mail closes next week. All thoughts of shopping shattered under the weight of what my eyes beheld: Christmas stuff.

Yep. I had to think of the date - September 27 - and there were the store clerks, loading up shelves with boxed plastic trees, chocolate-filled Santa stockings, gaudy decorations...

Personally, I think it is consumerism gone mad. We are three months away people! I don't need to see this now, it's Spring! The Wattle is blooming, all the flowers are blooming, the trees are waking up from Winter slumber, their leaves only just now poking through hardened protective husks and the night air still has a nip in it! I don't want to know about Summer heat, bushfires, sunburn, bushflies and prawns on the barby. Hell, we've yet to have the October long weekend!

What ever happened to stores setting up Christmas stuff on December 1? Huh? Huh? Well?

At the very worst, by the time the big day arrives, people are weary of it all, had all the joy sucked out of them by the constant onslaught of whiney kids demanding this, then changing their minds and demanding that. Then there's the Christmas music ad nauseum for three months; the hiding of presents bought in advance, the advertising campaigns that tell you if you don't spend a couple of thousand dollars on that new washing machine, lawn mower, vaccuum cleaner, push-bike, skate board, PS3, complete Barbie castle/house set, laptop, mobile phone, you don't really love your family.

Is it any wonder the crime rates skyrocket in December? People have maxed out their credit cards, got the wrong gift, forgot someone, opened the wrong present, the Christmas dinner sucked, the in-laws are assholes, the kids are obnoxious...

I'm ignoring it. I'm not shopping anywhere for pressies with their Christmas gear out already. Yes, I'll confess here and now that I started on the long list in August, tucking a few things away, but that is good economics. I don't need the irritating music, the pasted on smiles, false 'sales' or the trappings of Christmas - I'm Pagan, not Christian, and the Pagan Solstice is very much a low key event. The simple thankfulness for the harvest, not this all out money grab by retailers masquerading as 'seasonal good will'.

I have two words for anyone who thinks September is fine for Christmas junk to be out: Bah Humbug!