Incidentally, I'd just like to point out that I heard my first Christmas carol of the year on the 10th of August. Words can barely express my levels of horror and disgust at the continuing encroachment of this fucking day on our lives. Now that the barrier of Halloween has been breached, and with no US-style Thanksgiving to act as a secondary brake, there's nothing stopping Christmas in this country from extending all the way back to the end of Easter.