I nearly sent this card back with a stick-on note on which I had written, "No, it isn't!", but Padma stopped me at the last moment. She still believes in Christmas; I never did!
For most people, the Christmas season means ornaments hanging from trees, stockings lining fireplaces and joyful music filling the air. In addition, millions brace themselves for the month of constant marketing messages and spending.
Christmas has become such an über-commercialised holiday. And then there is the "Christmas creep" with major retailers moving the start of their advertising and promotional activities ever earlier to exploit the commercialised status of Christmas – in some cases as early as the first week of November.
Christmas is, as the saying goes, the season of goodwill to all men. But are people prompted to give one another gifts and good cheer by the spirit of the season itself, or because they are being bombarded by companies telling them to express their generosity through the medium of buying things? Have a Merry Chri$tma$ but leave me out of it!
