^Ears prop up you mean you want a game of catch?

Odd, I haven't really seen much of Christmas preparations here yet. Ok there are more kid's toy commercials on TV all of a sudden, but apart from that... I don't yet hear any Xmas jingles in supermarkets, malls are not yet decorated with Xmas crap as far as I can tell etc...

The Xmas street in Helsinki will be opened in the very beginning of December I think, and generally I expect all the Xmas pushing to start in full force after the Finnish Independence Day, which is on 6th of December.

One thing I dislike in the weeks before Christmas that our work canteens tend to offer more and more traditional Finnish Christmas food. Thanks, but I get enough of that during the actual Chistmas days at home, I wouldn't want to eat the same stuff weeks beforehand. It is not that tasty food anyway, but I'll endure it during Christmas.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joulup%C3%B6yt%C3%A4

In here we can already see shopping malls decorated by Christmas related dingies. No snow, it's not even cold outside. Doesn't feel like Christmas is anywhere near, but business people are just too much into thinking "Starting season sooner shall give us more moneyh!" Well, it doesn't really. Stupid. We should celebrate now something autumn related instead.

Heh, you are late in the US they already started Christmas season in Lidl and Hofer here in the middle October :)

I always think they must be going crazy. Seriously who buys christmas stuff before middle of december at all.

People that wish to decorate at the start of December and need to buy a few things?

Heh, that is so thing of the past here. You rarely see anybody putting Christmas decorations up before one week to Christmas and a few days after that day everything is already cleared and packed away. We already grown out of the craze. At least one thing the economic crisis was good for.

My individual participation has minimal impact when it's happening all around me. It has about as much effect as deciding to opt out of a flood or earthquake.

And technically I already don't celebrate Christmas, since I'm not a Christian. For me it's a social holiday and part of my national culture, plus some Solstice celebration thrown in on my part. I enjoy it as a special event, not a marathon. After all, how special would a Fourth Of July fireworks show be if you were setting them off for a whole month beforehand?

lol yes, everything but the black friday stuff. Never done a black friday and never will :) I hate shopping. hate it. and I hate people, so....

everything you said is awesome.

I'm with you there. Cyber Monday is so much easier, and actually fun at times.

Considering the scope of some fireworks shows I've seen here, I think one would have to decimate an entire city for the proper climax to a month of such events. :)

Ask Walt Disney World. Fireworks every single night unless nature's providing its own show with lightning!

So, a scaled up version of this?