Friday, November 11, 2005

Christmas gets earlier every year

I’VE been meaning to take some shots of the very early Christmas nonsense that has been popping up all over the city in the last two weeks and only got around to it this morning.

This tree is in position on O’Connell Street, no lights yet.
O Connell Street tree

And here is the Grafton Street tree, well the one at the bottom of Grafton Street, I’m sure there’s another at the top. This one is in pride of place beside the Molly Malone statue.
Grafton Street Christmas Tree

And the shops are ready to rake in all your money.
Christmas In Pennys

The Blarney Woollen Mill shop is looking particularly gaudy…
BlarneyWoollenMills

All this just serves to remind me that I am just not ready and I should be taking advantage of the fact that I will not be paid weekly for much longer, it will probably stop in the next couple of weeks. Therefore I should be trying to get bits and pieces each week.

Christmas is a bloody tough time of year especially seeing as how the young wan is getting older and presents get more and more expensive.

Ah well, what can you do?

When I was taking these pics I noticed a group of young revellers on their way home, or on their way to breakfast, in the morning commuting rush hour in all their evening finery after their Debs Ball which must have taken place last night.

They are a normal sight at this time of year and the young women always look freezing, well they are in ball gowns with nothing but a fancy wrap around them on a November morning at 8am.

Morning After Debs

In the pic above you will notice a young man with his back to the camera beside the girls in their finery wearing a coat AND scarf. He is actually with the young women… and he looks lovely and warm, charming or what?

Morning After Debs night

In Belfast your Debs ball was your formal, short for formal dinner dance and it was held once a year. The end of the night was always marked or should I say marred by a long walk in the cold to get a taxi and the gentlemen who escorted you would give you his tuxedo jacket for warmth. It’s a rite of passage, or so I thought until I saw this very ungentlemanly man.

Morning After Debs night 2

I hope his mum gives him a slap around the legs when he gets home.

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2 comments:

Emma in Canada said...

I'd call you both grinches but that might be pushing it. I love the whole hustle and bustle of Christmas, but I will admit that this year with 3 kids, I'm a bit terrified of the Christmas bills. However, I am playing my Christmas CDs to keep the spirit!

Anonymous said...

It's interesting to see that "Christmas creep" is an international phenomenon. Here in the States the Christmas season traditionally starts right after Thanksgiving, which we celebrate on the fourth Thursday in November. Retailers always hold huge sales on that first Friday, sometimes opening stores as early as 5am, to get the shopping season started in earnest.

That's where I draw the line. After Thanksgiving, I like the Christmas decorations and music (well, most of the music). Before Thanksgiving, they annoy me.

Despite that clear boundary, stores and other semi-public places are putting up Christmas decorations and putting seasonal inventory on shelves earlier and earlier. This year I went into a store on October 29 to pick up some candy for Halloween (yes, we've dropped the apostrophe on this side of the pond), and the store had already put up two aisles of Christmas merchandise. Not only is the Christmas retail season starting earlier each year, but it's now completely enveloped another holiday's season.