With the clocks going back and a chill in the air, we're very much hurtling at break-neck speed towards the winter.
And while the thought of saying goodbye to those light nights of beer gardens and barbecues leaves a good number of us slightly depressed, Christmas seems to make pretty much everyone else childishly excited.
Naturally, people look forward to the festive season, but for many of us it's also one of the most infuriating times of the year. Here are just a few reasons why...
Christmas light switch -ons
Many local authorities may only get around to taking them down at some point in August, but come November, they're back up again.
Somehow, there is still enough interest to make Christmas light switch-on events a thing, and if your town's lucky enough, you may even have a D-list celebrity along to help out.
Spare a thought for the people that have to put the lights up, though. At least this one in Brighton has been a bit creative...
https://youtu.be/O2tj2WwCnSU
Christmas shopping updates on Facebook
For some reason, people get rather boastful when it comes to Christmas shopping. When you're sifted through the Instagrammed pictures of people's dogs and
Candy Crush requests updates that litter your Facebook feed the year round, it's not uncommon to see people proudly announcing that they've completed their Christmas shopping by the end of October.
News reports on houses with lots of lights
When it comes to decorating the outside of your house, most people play it safe by draping a few outdoor fairy lights off the gutter at the front of their houses. But then there's always some people that go completely over the top, coating the outside of their house with so many flashing lights that their house is visible from space.
Despite genuinely having the potential to blow up the national grid, or causing everyone with photosensitive epilepsy within a three mile radius to be at risk of a seizure, some people working for TV think it's
still novel enough to send a camera crew round and feature them on the news.
The bloody Coca Cola advert
Another 'event' that people can't resist documenting on Facebook - the first time they see the famous advert where a procession of Coca-Cola lorries drive through a snow-draped town... the true meaning of Christmas.
https://youtu.be/-gMjPezr8TY
The Christmas jumper bandwagon
A couple of years back, this was mildly amusing. People trying to outdo each other by purchasing the tackiest Christmas-themed jumper they could spend their money on. People still haven't had enough of the craze, with some now spending good money on a jumper that can only realistically be worn a couple of times a year. Make it stop.
Michael Buble
From January to mid October, Michael Buble is a top bloke. You don't necessarily choose to stick one of his CDs on in the car or think of him when you're compiling your gym playlist, but you quietly acknowledge that he possesses a velvety smooth singing voice.
The rest of the year, that same voice has the potential to make your eardrums perforate and bleed as you hear it creeping out of every shop doorway you happen to pass. His face is everywhere you look, to the point where you'd be forgiven for thinking that Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Michael Buble, not the son of God.
Let's be clear, these are just
some of the things that will get under our skin as we approach December 25. As the days grow shorter and the nights become longer, expect us to reel off even more of the things that we hate about the season to be jolly.
