The Whole Christmas and New Year Thing…
I don’t like Christmas.
First of all, I prefer to write ‘xmas’ because the word ‘Christmas’ is too long is too religious for my liking.
I’m not a Scrooge by any means, but I don’t like the xmas period because:
- It’s a religious holiday and I’m an atheist. I haven’t met a single person who I would consider to be any where near religious so don’t get me started on the whole religion thing
- Xmas has nothing to do with religion – even for 99.9% of the people who say they are religious
- Car parking is a nightmare at xmas time – and I work at an office in the Milton Keynes town centre and have to park in a public car park
- The shops start advertising xmas things at around September time
- People always get sick just before xmas, probably because of the close proximity of people as they go shopping
- I often don’t know what presents I want
- Other people don’t know what they want
- The whole present buying thing is rubbish
- Cards are a total rip-off. A small a piece of printed cardboard for over £2 (in many cases £3-4). Plus the content on most of the cards isn’t even good – they are mostly playing on the a dumb, childish type of ‘insult’ humour
I have learned to buy all of the presents as late as possible because sales always start in the 1-2 weeks leading up to xmas.
Still, at least it’s some time off of work (I get a ‘Deloitte day’ – which this year was the 24th December, xmas day, Boxing day and New years day). I (like most other people in my company) have taken the Mon – Thur off of work using my standard holiday entitlement.
I do see the point of New Years day, but on the times that I have ventured out into town in the evening, it has been very quiet indeed and most of the restaurants are closed. People tend to stay at home or go to a local firework display. This year I’m going to see some friends up in Leeds.
I don’t like the concept of New Years resolutions. I check and adjust things as I go, I don’t wait until New Years day to make a resolution. Plus I don’t make a pointless resolution on New Years day – no point really as you can’t predict what is going to happen that year.
Another thing that comes just after xmas (and as mentioned above, just before xmas too) is sales in shops. Sales come about for a few reasons, the main ones are:
- Prices kept artificially high for the time leading up to xmas
- Surplus of unsold stock needs to be shifted before new trends/replacements come out
Every year the shops get crammed with people buying goods for no real reason other than it is in a sale and therefore must be a bargain. However I do most of my shopping online so avoid the sales (and get better/same prices than can be found in the shops anyway). The only things I really go to shops for are clothes and food.
Having said that there are 2 things that I would like to buy:
- HTC HD mobile phone. The mobile phone providers usually do better deals just after xmas (Orange are now giving more inclusive talk minutes for the same prices as of the 27th December). My current contract expires on the 2nd January so I’ll get the HTC HD next weekend, or the following week, either on O2 or Orange. I currently have the HTC TyTn II
- Giant Anthem X1 mountain bike. One online shop has the bike at 15% off (which is a £330 saving), although I’ll want to go for a test ride at another shop first. I’m just not sure if I want to buy the bike now or later as I haven’t got any races planned yet