Christmas in October!?!

How early is too early for Christmas trees? I was bemused to see these three at my local shopping centre - and a nativity scene just out-of-shot.

Christmas trees in October? What's really going on here?

It was Monday 29 October, but I'm guessing they went up a few days earlier - before the weekend rush. Does your local shopping centre have decorations up yet? Let me know in the comments.

Reli-gious?

I'd like to believe that the centre CEO or managing staff are just so full of the joy of Christmas, that they just couldn't wait to put out the Christmas decorations. But does anyone even have their home tree up yet?

Or Really-just for money?

I can't help but think this is just a sneaky sales tactic. Decorations prompt shoppers to put something extra in their trolley "for Christmas". The longer decorations are up, the more action they get at the cash register.

While the nativity scene depicts people worshipping baby Jesus, the intent is more about worship of sales figures. Later in the year, look out for news interviews with retail executives declaring this to be a "good Christmas" - but only if sales are more than last year. and significantly more.

What's wrong with this?

The problem is that it doesn't make us any happier. Buying extra stuff we don't need just leaves us with more clutter, more waste, more waist (if the stuff is food), more debt and more stress. Hardly a Merry Christmas!

Write down a list of the things that you enjoy about the Christmas season. Chances are it includes the Christmas movies, the Christmas music, spending time with loved ones and being on holidays. If you're Christian it might be more about Jesus. If you're in the Northern hemisphere it might also be making snowmen. Here in Australia it might be going to the beach or having a dip in the pool.

Do those things more. Do shopping less.

As far as possible, have less stress and insanity. Have more of the joy of Christmas.

Comments

Where is the best place to live?

Where we live determines a lot about our life. So today I'm going to share a resource that can help you decide where might be a good place to live. It started with an article ranking Brisbane suburbs from 1 to 260 . That ranking was based on a set of 17 factors. Here are some of them. But all 17 may not be relevant for you. And some might matter more than others. So they developed a tool where you can rank the 5 factors most important to you and it will give you a personalised list of Brisbane suburbs that would be the best for you - based on those factors. There are also Sydney and Melbourne versions. On the results page, there's also a map that colour-codes each suburb by star rating, for each factor. For instance here's the map for public transport. Five-star suburbs are in blue. When you click on a suburb, you get the name and the star rating of that suburb - for whichever factor you select. I find this to be so enlightening. I choose not to own a car. Some...

Why millionaires don't "feel" rich

We're wealthier than ever - so why don't we feel like it? Australia has gone almost three decades without recession. The stock market recently hit a record high. Our wages are record highs. Home loan rates are at record lows. We live in one of the richest countries in the world at the richest point in history. So what's wrong? Comparison Wealth is relative. So what do we compare to? Where we expect to be? "When your wages growth is only 2 or 3 per cent, you don't feel as well-off as when it's going up 10 per cent. That's that nominal distortion that people often suffer from" , says economist Shane Oliver, and that "expectations have grown a lot faster than reality." We're earning more than last year, but we want even more. So compared to our imaginary situation, we see ourselves as worse off. What we see around us? Shane Oliver again. "If you think about it - Australians today are a lot wealthier. They're living far ric...

How to waste a year's wages

A friend recently asked me why it is that so many people (on good incomes) are struggling to save. Often the big three money areas are housing, transport and food. In one sense these are necessary items. But what we spend on them is often way more than necessary. I crunched some numbers on how much extra my wife and I could spend on these things - if for some reason we wanted to burn our money. 1. Housing Our apartment is fairly nice, but also cost-effective. I've mentioned how choosing it saves us $1,800 per year , compared to a similar one we saw. The high end of 2-bedroom apartments in our suburb is $305 per week more than our apartment. Not $305 per week. $305 per week more than ours is. I cannot get over that. Sure it's new and modern-looking, but that's a lot of money. It's an extra $15,860 per year above what we pay. 2. Transport The Australian Automobile Association lists the costs of owning and running a car. It includes many often-overlooked c...

But wait... there's less!

Search This Blog