Kathriona Devereux: Christmas in October...can we agree to delay using the C-word?

Let me be the first to wish you a “Happy Christmas.” I know it’s only November 11 and Jesus’s big birthday celebration is a mere 44 sleeps away but is it ever too early to extend festive wishes to my beloved readers? Yes! Yes, it is!

We wouldn’t dream of wishing each other a “Happy Christmas” before the month of December, yet retailers are intent on foisting festive cheer upon us earlier and earlier each year and I can’t take it anymore.

Seasonal dissonance

Complaints of the encroachment of Christmas into more of the calendar year are nothing new but this year seems to be particularly ridiculous. On Saturday, October 25, while en route to enjoy the jazz offerings of the New Brass Kings on the big stage in Emmet Place I ran the gauntlet of Opera Lane which was lined with 30ft Christmas trees! My jazz hat hadn’t even been discarded for a witch’s hat and there I was affronted by the not-so-subtle nudge to start digging out my Santa hat!

Opera Lane wasn’t alone in contributing to the feeling of seasonal dissonance. SuperValu at The Lough had its Christmas lights switched on for the October bank holiday. I even spotted a house with their Christmas lights on and, I think, an inflatable Santa on the doorstep.

Neil Prendeville played Red FM’s first Christmas song of the 2025 season - last Friday - on November 7! This Friday, 40 days before Christmas, the Corkmas parade will wind its way through the streets of Cork. Last year was a fantastic spectacle and drew thousands to the city centre, but after Santa passed by ringing his big bell, how many of the crowd turned to each other and said “Do you know what? I’m going to lash into my Christmas shopping straight away.”

The egregious examples of premature Christmas decoration are everywhere. Instead of greeting all these lovely decorations with joy and gratitude for bringing light and sparkle into our lives at the darkest time of the year, I just get the rage that retail economics insists on pushing fast forward on life’s nice moments.

Even my own kids have started rolling their eyes as Elves on Shelves appear on supermarket shelves. They have started referring to Christmas as ‘Late December’ because they don’t want to overuse the “Ch word” and suffer festive fatigue by the time the big day rolls around.

The only pushback I’ve seen to unrelenting holiday creep is The Late Late Toy Show. It is shifting a week later to December 5 instead of the last Friday in November, as has been traditional. Hallelujah - a Christmas miracle!

Christmas economics

Of course, there is something else driving the tinsel creep — it’s economics. Christmas is the single biggest sales period of the year, and retailers want to turn it into a nine-week shopping extravaganza if they can. Starting earlier stretches the shopping season, encouraging people to spend gradually rather than all at once. It helps smooth out cash flow, especially for smaller retailers, and gives big chains more time to hit ambitious sales targets.

If one major retailer or shopping centre puts up decorations early, others feel pressure to follow so they don’t seem “behind.” It creates a sort of festive arms race — if one city centre shop unveils its Christmas windows early, others quickly follow.

But amid a cost-of-living crisis when most people have a set budget for food, festivities and presents, is a Christmas tree in October really going to make people spend more?

Divine timing

I know less people are regular churchgoers these days but perhaps reminding ourselves of Advent, the four-week season of preparation leading up to Christmas, is a good idea. Advent is a time of spiritual preparation and anticipation of the celebration of Christ’s birth. Each Sunday a new candle is lit on the Advent wreath and is a simple symbol that Christmas is coming but is also a helpful guide if you’re wondering when to start cleaning the skirting boards and ordering the turkey.

Also, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception on December 8 is another unintentional clue of when to commence Christmas consumer-ing. Traditionally it is when culchies come to the city to do their Christmas shopping.

If Church guidance is not your thing. How about Parkinson’s Law? A British historian famously said that “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion”

Realistically, all Christmas tasks can be completed in a relatively short period of time and we really do not need to be thinking about it in October.

A Christmas truce?

How about a truce? How much lead time do people legitimately need or want in the run up to the festive season? Three weeks? Six weeks? Obviously if you are growing turkeys and Christmas trees it’s a long pursuit. But if you’re a simple retailer, could we agree that five weeks before December 25 is a reasonable window to market Christmas to customers?

Sorry to be getting ahead of myself, and contradicting myself by talking about Christmas too early, but can we start planning for Christmas 2026 now? December 25, 2026 falls on a Friday next year. So how about we don’t start “Christmas” until five weeks beforehand?

How about a voluntary code among all Cork retailers, supermarkets, radio stations, and parade organisers that there won’t be a peep of sparkly lights, a sniff of glitter or a flurry of tinsel before November 20?

Consumers will hold onto their treasured euros until then and we can all collectively embrace the Christmas season happily instead of spending the previous four weeks griping about the commercialisation of Christmas. It’ll still be commercial, just in a more distinct period.

If we don’t draw a line, I feel it’s only a matter of time before we are wishing each other Happy Eastoweenmas with all the major celebrations of the year bunched into one irritating mass of marketing.

Ok so, we’re agreed? Not a whisper of the C-word next year before November 20, 2026. I can’t wait!