When the decorations go up (was: Being Scrooge-like)

[pengolodh_sc]

Not replying to any one in particular here.

In Norway, it used to be that Christmas-decorations and Christmas-
products would not appear in shops until December 1st.  That is still 
the date when the outdoor Christmas-trees and the outdoor Christmas-
decorations in the streets are lit, but Christmas-decorations and 
pother products are increasingly early.  This year, the Christmas 
marchpane-bags appeared in shops September 25th - what's the point of 
selling Christmas-sweets so early that people are sick of them when 
Christmas is actually there?  They will only taste better the longer 
you wait before indulging.  

In fact, there now seems to be a small but growing popular movement 
against this commercialisation of Christmas, with protests, attempts 
of boycots of the worst offenders, and similar.

At least, most Norwegian still stick to the tradition of not putting 
up the tree until December 23rd, in the very late evening (typically 
finishing the tree at around 2 a.m., or so) - we still like to 
differentiate Advent, with special Advent-decorations, whicha re much 
simpler and more restrained.  Many families still also enforce that 
the children are not actually allowed into the room with the tree 
until the morning of Christmas Eve - so that the children will see 
the tree finished, in a room lit only by the lights on the tree.

Best regards
Christian Stubø