It's that strange time of year again, Christmas Day is past but we are still within the 12 traditional days of Christmas, which end on January 6th.
Anyway: one thing that really gets me about contemporary UK culture is the way that (on the one hand) we start thinking about Christmas in the middle of autumn and (on the other hand) all references to Christmas are seemingly banned from the very start of Boxing Day.
You'll never, these days, hear any even vaguely-Christmas-related song as soon as we get to Boxing Day, it seems. Not just the obvious ones, like Slade, Wham! and so on - but even the more traditional ones like Winter Wonderland, Frosty the Snowman and so on. You won't hear carols on the radio either. One would think they could play two or three an hour, like they did at the very start (!) of December. Personally I would move the period that they play Christmas songs forward by one week, so that rather than December 1-25, it's from about December 10 to the day before the first working day in January.
You also hear people saying "how was your Christmas?" as if it's January already. What about the twelve days; it's not just about December 25th! At the very least let's keep Christmas going until the day before the first working day in January!
I personally think this is a bit of a shame. The closing days of December have little else going for them, they are dark, wet and dull and nothing's going on, so why not keep the Christmas spirit going a bit longer? And in October and November, there are other things going on, like Halloween, Bonfire Night, Remembrance Day and enjoying the autumn leaves - so there's no point in focusing on Christmas so very early.
I know that I have posted at length on other threads bemoaning this, but I think it's another symptom of all that is wrong with contemporary UK culture. I emphasise the words "contemporary" and "UK" here, because it's not the case in some other countries and hasn't, if I remember right, always been the case here. I'm sure that back in the 80s we used to keep the Christmas spirit going a little longer - and certainly didn't start in October or the first half of November.
I've spent time in other European countries in this period of the year and much prefer what they do there. It's helped by the fact that New Year's Day and Twelfth Night are often bigger, traditional or religious celebrations, than they are here - and both those days have old customs associated with them. In at least two other European nations you'll still hear Christmas songs in the week following Christmas Day, and you'll often have special food traditions, for example, for New Year's Day. Contrast that to New Year in the contemporary UK. Nothing more than people being charged extortionate rates to go to venues and getting stupidly drunk. I know what I prefer.
Sadly in the contemporary UK you can forget the "Twelve Days of Christmas", it appears. Here is how the UK 21st Century Remix of the well-known song should be sung.
"On the First Day of Christmas my true love sent to me,
a partridge in a pear tree".
That's it. No turtle doves, French hens or calling birds. No Five Gold Rings. And certainly no ladies dancing or lords-a-leaping.
Just another way in which contemporary UK culture irritates me intensely - I won't mention the B-word or Boris-worship, as I've complained enough about those in other threads.
Anyway, seasonal rant over
Anyway: one thing that really gets me about contemporary UK culture is the way that (on the one hand) we start thinking about Christmas in the middle of autumn and (on the other hand) all references to Christmas are seemingly banned from the very start of Boxing Day.
You'll never, these days, hear any even vaguely-Christmas-related song as soon as we get to Boxing Day, it seems. Not just the obvious ones, like Slade, Wham! and so on - but even the more traditional ones like Winter Wonderland, Frosty the Snowman and so on. You won't hear carols on the radio either. One would think they could play two or three an hour, like they did at the very start (!) of December. Personally I would move the period that they play Christmas songs forward by one week, so that rather than December 1-25, it's from about December 10 to the day before the first working day in January.
You also hear people saying "how was your Christmas?" as if it's January already. What about the twelve days; it's not just about December 25th! At the very least let's keep Christmas going until the day before the first working day in January!
I personally think this is a bit of a shame. The closing days of December have little else going for them, they are dark, wet and dull and nothing's going on, so why not keep the Christmas spirit going a bit longer? And in October and November, there are other things going on, like Halloween, Bonfire Night, Remembrance Day and enjoying the autumn leaves - so there's no point in focusing on Christmas so very early.
I know that I have posted at length on other threads bemoaning this, but I think it's another symptom of all that is wrong with contemporary UK culture. I emphasise the words "contemporary" and "UK" here, because it's not the case in some other countries and hasn't, if I remember right, always been the case here. I'm sure that back in the 80s we used to keep the Christmas spirit going a little longer - and certainly didn't start in October or the first half of November.
I've spent time in other European countries in this period of the year and much prefer what they do there. It's helped by the fact that New Year's Day and Twelfth Night are often bigger, traditional or religious celebrations, than they are here - and both those days have old customs associated with them. In at least two other European nations you'll still hear Christmas songs in the week following Christmas Day, and you'll often have special food traditions, for example, for New Year's Day. Contrast that to New Year in the contemporary UK. Nothing more than people being charged extortionate rates to go to venues and getting stupidly drunk. I know what I prefer.
Sadly in the contemporary UK you can forget the "Twelve Days of Christmas", it appears. Here is how the UK 21st Century Remix of the well-known song should be sung.
"On the First Day of Christmas my true love sent to me,
a partridge in a pear tree".
That's it. No turtle doves, French hens or calling birds. No Five Gold Rings. And certainly no ladies dancing or lords-a-leaping.
Just another way in which contemporary UK culture irritates me intensely - I won't mention the B-word or Boris-worship, as I've complained enough about those in other threads.
Anyway, seasonal rant over
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