Its not this time of year until….

It’s Not This Time of Year Without…

1. Festive lights on Trees outside every shopping centre in sight

Evidence for the defence….

This is the Entrance of the Lowry outlet mall in Salford (Look it up guys, it’s my hometown. Situated next to Manchester – who like to get developers to subvert their name onto every other city / town in the Metropolitan Area)

2. Every large store has some sort of “Winter” Sale

This one is a biggie…as I write there’s five more days of NOVEMBER folks.  By the time we get to the week of Christmas itself – There’s going to be one hell of an Anti-climax.

3. Christmas Markets

I Actually like Christmas Markets…why we have to have them in November Heaven only knows, it still raised a smile seeing the Traditional stalls being set up in the streets (Haven’t opened yet – so there may be an image here later 🙂 )

4. There’s  Food you normally don’t buy in the rest of the year

As well as the usual Meat and Veg you see around this season, the nature of what is available is astounding.   Satsumas, Cranberries and all sorts of Flavourings – and that’s just for the stuffing.  You get all this in….and most of it (particularly those flavourings you sprinkle over the roasts to make them “especially crispy”) is still there two weeks after twelfth night.

One Good thing – Mince pies and Christmas Pudding…(though you can get plum pudding in the shops after Christmas day

5.  The Mad Rush

Today (Friday) was believe it or Not – Black Friday – where the world and his wife went bonkers looking for “Unbelievable” bargains.  I avoided Manchester city centre like a dose of the plague.  But I too, used to run around before 24th December in a mad rush to get the present everybody wanted…even if that meant I received three Christmas jumpers in return…This year – i’m pacing myself…running round causes too much stress…and we don’t need that now do we?

I’m just going to take it easy, pick out the stuff from my list of pressies i’m sending to santa and enjoy the rest of the holidays