Going on a bit about stuff!

Is it just me, or is there a certain amount if infantilisation going on?

Everyone seems to be talking about films about Peter Rabbit and Paddington Bear. Now, both if these are delightful characters in their way - if you are a small child! Both our children enjoyed the stories. But really, do we need such a lot of hype about films that are essentially intended for children? Maybe, like Shrek, they have a subtext that makes them highly amusing for adults as well.

Then there are the Christmas adverts. Apparently the John Lewis advert, which tells a story about a little boy with a monster under his bed, has made some people cry. I confess that I have only seen it without the sound. I wasn’t sure I could stand stand listening to it as well as seeing the pictures in a small screen segment of Facebook. My hairdresser yesterday said that she could not understand what it was all,about. Maybe, like me, she has only watched it without the sound.

Tesco’s contribution has been making some people indignant because it includes muslims celebrating Christmas. I wonder how many of those people are actually practising Christians who get up and go to church on Christmas morning. Besides, Christmas has become such a commercial feast that I can quite understand anyone at all, believers or nonbelievers of all or no faiths, making it an excuse to get together, have a bit of a party and give each other presents. Back when I was a child nobody questioned the fact that the Jewish kids at school used to send everyone Christmas cards through the school’s internal Christmas post service!

Marks and Spencer’s advert apparently features Paddington Bear. That bear is getting altogether too much media coverage if you ask me. Before we know it he will be on Question Time and then he will end up as Prime Minister. Maybe not such a bad idea! 

I copied this off a link to the Waitrose advert:

 “Christmas is the perfect time of year to gather round and enjoy delicious food but most importantly to spend #ChristmasTogether.”

The thing is that the original layout on the page where I first saw it put “#Christmas together” on a separate line. Consequently I read it initially as “... but most importantly to spend”. I thought this was a refreshingly honest bit if advertising, until I looked at it again! Such a disappointment!

Everywhere I go, pubs and restaurants are urging us to book now for Christmas. Manchester is full to bursting with Christmas markets, all sparklingly lit up by Christmas lights. Oldham town centre has not yet switched on its Christmas lights but they are ready and waiting, with a huge sign across the High Street which does not wish everyone Merry Christmas but incongruously declares, “OLDHAM LIGHTS”. Presumably this is just in case you though you had reached Blackpool Illuminations! 

That’s enough ranting. Here is a link to two of my favourite female singers, K.D. Lang and Carole King, doing a song called "An Uncommon Love".