More pix of Brum's Frankfurt Market today, this time by rather gloomy daylight.

Here's the Garlic Bread/Knobi Brot stall, shaped like a big bulb of garlic



and here's a giant Father Christmas (I probably didn't need to tell you that!)



People enjoying themselves in front of the Council House



(click for larger image as usual)

Here is George Bernard Shaw on the subject:

Like all intelligent people, I greatly dislike Christmas. It revolts me to see a whole nation refrain from music for weeks together in order that every man may rifle his neighbour’s pockets under cover of a ghastly general pretence of festivity. It is really an atrocious institution, this Christmas. We must be gluttonous because it is Christmas. We must be drunken because it is Christmas. We must be insincerely generous; we must buy things that nobody wants, and give them to people we don’t like; we must go to absurd entertainments that make even our little children satirical; we must writhe under venal officiousness from legions of freebooters, all because it is Christmas – that is, because the mass of the population, including the all-powerful middle-class tradesman, depends on a week of license and brigandage, waste and intemperance, to clear off its outstanding liabilities at the end of the year.

Only a week! My, they just don't know how lucky they were in those day....

Dare I suggest that the majority of people who say they don't like Christmas (whether you choose to celebrate the Christian festival or anything else) have no issue with Christmas per se, but hate being imposed upon by others - friends, family, retailers, advertisers?

I find that the "magic" of Christmas has waned since the days when my 4 kids were small enough to find it magical. I still like the annual carols (bringing back memories for me of years gone by), and always still make something special for Christmas lunch. But I feel that perhaps its real joys have now been passed on to others with younger families, and I too get depressed a little by all the commercialism it attracts.

I shall never forget an encounter a couple of years ago when I was in the queue at Smiths: the lady in front of me rather abruptly asked the person at the till "Are these the only Christmas cards you have?". The till lady replied "Yes - but there's quite a large selection". The grumpy customer then said "I've looked through them all! It's really depressing to see that they're even bringing 'religion' into Christmas now!".

Oh well, I'm still looking forward to it somehow - it's only once a year.

Baz

I think there’s little point now trying to extricate the religious elements from the commercial ones at this late stage.  If I remember my RE, Xmas is a pretty small affair compared with Easter, isn’t it?  The ‘good news’ is the resurrection, not the birth; and the result is that the Christian festival never really came out from under the shadow of the Saturnalia.(indeed some Christians still view it with suspicion, don’t they)?  It’s unlikely to do so now.

As for people dreading Xmas, I think there is (and has been been for as long as I can remember  but it is getting worse imo) a tendency to try to have fun on cue; with the result that some people’s expectations are so high that disappointment is inevitable.  If you are one of these people or, perhaps more usually, if you live with or were brought up among such people, a dread of Xmas is understandable.


I don’t see any point in being miserable but there’s little in the festival for me.  There are fewer concerts than almost any other time of year.  There might be something good on the TV (chances have increased with new specialist channels) or radio but you can guarantee there will also be even more drivel than usual as well.  I I’m lucky I’ll get a project to work giving me credit to take time off in lieu when I can use it to my advantage.  Musn’t grumble, though.  I’ve got a fabulous week coming up just before the festivities begin:  Felicity Palmer & Simon Lepper in recital, then Jansons & the Concertgebouw Orchestra, then ‘Daphne’ (never seen it before) and finally Imogen Cooper before I head home.   

Could be you're in for a treet (sic.)