Advent Moaning Starts Earlier Every Year

It's just a suspicion I've had. But I reckon this year, it was even earlier than ever.

Just how early can you complain that it's Advent, not Christmas?

Every year, people complain that the shops have Christmas stock earlier every year. But do you know, thinking back to the mid-80s I'm pretty sure Sainsbury's were getting the crackers in, in early August. And I reckon that, if you did some historical research, you'd find nothing's changed. There's a kind of chronological terminus - you can't put out the Xmas gear until you've covered off the Summer Season. And logically there's no way that anyone will ever get to the point where they're putting out the Xmas stuff in April.

So using some figures I've totally made up, I can definitively prove what I've always suspected. It's not that Christmas starts earlier in the shops each year - it's our memories of when the Christmas stuff arrived, that gets later the further you go back.

So, the date you remember Xmas starting in the shops this year is a constant. It's 12 August, and has been right back to the point where the UK started to shake off post-war austerity. But the date you remember Xmas starting, gets later the further you go back. In twenty years' time, I'll probably remember Xmas this year starting in the shops on Boxing Day.

So next time someone tells you that the shops are responsible for Christmas getting earlier, tell them you saw a graph on the Internet that said they were wrong. They can't argue with that. After all, that's real research.