Yule be sorry

I've spent a number of years in the past encouraging congregations not to get too Christmassy too early. Partly it began because I got fed up with people wingeing that Christmas began too early but then not doing anything about trying to resist involvement themselves. In addition it did seem to me that the festival was meant to be a 12 day thing and we tend to try to cram all the best stuff into 25th December, so part of what I tried to encourage us to do was to recover a 12-day Christmas. I say this by way of demonstrating my bona-fides as one of those who really rather dislikes the invasion of Advent by Christmas and the loss of a 12-day feast. That said, I found this really disturbing: it's an incident of a shop selling Christmas cards in August being threatened for doing so ...

"The Mind branch was also phoned by a man who claimed to have carried out the attack, saying that it would happen again if cards continued to be sold 'far too early'. But the charities involved said that agreeing to the demand would lose them regular income. The brief notes, all delivered by hand, say: 'This is a very polite but very serious reminder not to display Xmas cards until 1st Nov. We will put super glue into your locks if you do. Peace and goodwill.''"

Now I'd rather not see the full-scale shop consumer fest anticipating Christmas get underway in August either. I think that the more we Yulify early, the more we are acclimating ourselves to the festival and so losing a sense of its specialness. The point of a festival in part is that it should be different to the everyday: by festooning our shops with the trimmings we are turning it into everyday winter 'dress' rather than something special.

But the solution is very far from threatening charity shops for selling Christmas cards. I'd actually be happy to buy Christmas cards in August, and I think that people should be free to do so. What I want is for retailers not to go into full swing too early, and I'd rather discourage them by not buying and staying away. The language that retailers understand is, ultimately, sales. This guy's threats really are a very bad way to go about it much though I think I may understand his being fed-up.

However, I have recently been rethinking and feeling that we need to recognise that perhaps we may have to compromise somewhat with the secular thing, so my newer suggestions are here.
Yule be sorry: threat to August sellers of Xmas cards | Life and style | The Guardian: