Christmas is coming...

...and the geese are getting fat. I typed obese geese into google images in order to add a funny image to the article and on the first page of results it came of with this...

   .....yes, a picture of Sol Campbell, the former England international.

After researching further, it turns out that it is linked to a newspaper article with the opening line as, 'Christmas is coming, the geese are getting fat'...I didn't think he looked like much of a goose.

Anyway, I digress, and once again like many times before, I have gone off task. The purpose of this post in of course the 'most wonderful time of the year'. Christmas is on 25th December...for those of you that didn't know that fact, go away...now. However despite it being on one of the last days of the calender year, the build-up to it seems to begin in October and seems to get earlier every year. I heard the first Christmas song on the radio at the end of October as the presenter said, and I quote, "It's nearly Christmas!" How depressing. He must be bored sat there in his chair with his over-sized headphones on talking to people who don't give a hoot what he is saying. Well I certainly didn't.

Luckily they weren't driving when the man on the radio was talking...

                                

It is all well and good being prepared for the big day and getting yourself organised with buying gifts for people, buying the food and alcohol, decorations and flimsy plastic trees (get a real one) but we are moving further and further away from the real reason we have Christmas. Now, let me clarify one point, I am not a church goer. Never have been, and I probably never will be.

Santa and his massive sack...probably the worst artists impression ever.

                                    

However I do go to the midnight mass and go to church on Christmas eve to sing hymns and carols and listen to boring people make speeches. But that does not make me religious. All I'm saying is that we are forgetting why we celebrate Christmas, the birth of Jesus. Now whether you're religious or not, we should be remembering that is why we celebrate the day and the reason the majority of us receive these wonderful gifts. If this 'event' wasn't written about, we wouldn't have the opportunity to exchange gifts or have Christmas parties. I say 'event' because you might be a non-believer and therefore don't believe that any of the Bible works are real or ever happened, I mean let's be honest, water into wine? Curing blindness? The feeding of the 5000? Come on. But despite that, there is nothing wrong in having faith and believing. You cannot dispute it.

The conversation Jesus blatently had...

                                      

What bothers me most about it now though is how early we prepare. Like I said, it's okay buying your gifts, that is just being organised, how I wish I was. But for example, the Christmas lights...in November? Why? As pretty and as atmospheric as it might be getting shoppers in the Christmas spirit, it is far too early. I love this time of year, especially as it gets closer to the day. However if I started buying gifts now and was ready for it by the end of the second week in November like some people, there isn't any real excitement, it evaporates (like when Russel Howard walks onto a stage). The feeling of buying that special gift for someone in November isn't the same as buying it in the week leading up to the 25th. The large build-up is draining the excitement, enthusiam and good-will in to one massive dustbowl.

After draining the excitement from the room, Russel wonders where the audience has gone...

So this Christmas, take a moment or two to realise why we celebrate it, even if you don't believe, like me. And to those people who put the lights up early, stop ruining my Christmas.

Amen

Ben x