In one of my pre-Newstalk lives and offices, I had a colleague who, once the October bank holiday Monday was out of the way, wanted to plant our Christmas tree right in the middle of the floor. Her colleagues emitted loud groans and thankfully the idea was quietly put on the back burner until the first week of December.
Any reasonable person had the same reaction when they saw the Christmas lights being strung up on Grafton St.
Christmas is a December thing. We have four weeks of nightly liver damage, daily shopping panic and a longing for dry January. When we were children, the month was all about hoping Santa would cop on and know I hated Chocolate Oranges and realise he didn’t have to deliver strange gifts like Rubik’s cubes six months before anybody else had them. 'It’s a cube and I do what with it, exactly?'
Yes, I was that soldier.
Why are these memories with me so early in November? The thing is this the month when the beasts of Christmas raise their heads and unleash their power to seduce and have us in their thrall.
First up was the list of the most popular toys that Santa will be carrying down the chimney with him. If there are any really bright boys and girls reading this, Santa, just like your mam and dad, is still living on a budget so be careful what you ask for.
The second monster to raise its Noël-ian head this week is the John Lewis ad. OK OK, I admit it; while i was supposed to be preparing for an editorial meeting last week, our esteemed business editor here in Newstalk tweeted a link to it and I clicked on it. I chuckled, I purred, and then something got stuck in my eye. Check it out here:
It’s just so cute. It was surely going to keep hold of our hearts right up until the night before Christmas? Maybe not. It’s a dog eat dog world out there and this week. Sainsbury's just went over the top with an ad that pulls on the heartstrings by bringing us back 100 years and recreating that football match in No-Mans Land. All to sell a chocolate bar.
It worked. After that strange thing made its presence felt in my eye once again, I longed for that bar of chocolate.
Bur I can’t buy it. Nor can i buy any penguin-related merchandise. Neither company has branches here (that big hole behind the Carlton cinema was going to be John Lewis’s first Irish store).
So what if these adverts actually just fuel consumerism instead of the real meaning of Christmas - all the odder given John Lewis is part of a great Quaker tradition. Yes, they are cute and cuddly and lull us into thinking ‘The next six weeks? Piece of Cake’ but they are essentially a piece of Home Counties English middle-class life.
Stockholm Syndrome anyone? Maybe, but they are damn fine ads and just the ticket to get you feeling warm and Christmassy.
Christmas in November? I could get used to it.
