What are you doing for Christmas?

Obviously due to my 30 years working in supermarket retailing at age 53 now, the past few years before Covid has seen the run-up to Christmas being way too commercialised, starting ever earlier each passing year, with Christmas displays in shops appearing from the end of August onwards, through to Sept, through October snd Halloween, after which time, it becomes too much and by Christmas Eve, aside from a big rush very early on, then by 1pm the store is practically dead, until people start realising the store closing time is 5pm and they rush to the store at 3-4pm up to 4.30pm - the strangest thing for me is that the “reason for the season” is lost in all of this (that of Christ’s birth) and this is epitomised by the non-availability of Christmas Cribs (Nativity scenes) and when they are available they are massively over-priced, even on online stores - living in the U.K. and having family in Rural Ireland, travelling home to Ireland on Christmas Eve is way too stressful and there are usually lots of travel disruptions whether by air or by overnight coach, train and/or by ferry, so I usually just wait until just after Christmas before attempting any travel in former years - however, this year, even in the post-Covid era, I’m considering travelling home to Ireland for Christmas, so I’m getting together all the advance information that I can, along with real time last minute updates instantly available - I’d considered travelling home for my birthday this year, but given the debacle of last year, I was far more cautious and lo and behold, a travel app alerted me to more train strikes in the U.K. and travel disruptions within Ireland (as I’m totally reliant on public transport) - issues around climate change and carbon footprint (which the Irish government are obsessed with) is set to make this ever more uncertain in the coming years  

Obviously due to my 30 years working in supermarket retailing at age 53 now, the past few years before Covid has seen the run-up to Christmas being way too commercialised, starting ever earlier each passing year, with Christmas displays in shops appearing from the end of August onwards, through to Sept, through October snd Halloween, after which time, it becomes too much and by Christmas Eve, aside from a big rush very early on, then by 1pm the store is practically dead, until people start realising the store closing time is 5pm and they rush to the store at 3-4pm up to 4.30pm - the strangest thing for me is that the “reason for the season” is lost in all of this (that of Christ’s birth) and this is epitomised by the non-availability of Christmas Cribs (Nativity scenes) and when they are available they are massively over-priced, even on online stores - living in the U.K. and having family in Rural Ireland, travelling home to Ireland on Christmas Eve is way too stressful and there are usually lots of travel disruptions whether by air or by overnight coach, train and/or by ferry, so I usually just wait until just after Christmas before attempting any travel in former years - however, this year, even in the post-Covid era, I’m considering travelling home to Ireland for Christmas, so I’m getting together all the advance information that I can, along with real time last minute updates instantly available - I’d considered travelling home for my birthday this year, but given the debacle of last year, I was far more cautious and lo and behold, a travel app alerted me to more train strikes in the U.K. and travel disruptions within Ireland (as I’m totally reliant on public transport) - issues around climate change and carbon footprint (which the Irish government are obsessed with) is set to make this ever more uncertain in the coming years