Christmas comes to Rochdale

The month is August. The hope for some summer sunshine is still alive in many of us, the nostalgic smells of freshly mown grass and hot city streets still tease our noses and the evenings still maintain a glow of daylight at least an hour or two after many of us return to work. Winter is in the future. It’s not something we’re thinking about yet – the dark nights, damp days and frosty mornings. We’ll deal with them when they arrive but for now it’s not something we’re even contemplating.

I say ‘we’ but it seems not all of us are so in the moment and keen to revel in the season in which we are currently residing. Rochdale City Council, for example, seem positively enthusiastic to get summer over and done with and get on with the dark days of winter. They decorated their streets this week, you see, but not with colourful bunting for a carnival or banners advertising a summer fair. Christmas decorations are their ornaments of choice. In August. Christmas decorations going up in August.

I normally get annoyed at evidence of Christmas anytime before late November so this naturally has me almost incandescent with seasonality rage. I have no problem with Christmas; indeed, being a lover of good food and booze and days off work, it’s a time of year I am quite enthusiastic about. In December. The end of December. August is just ridiculous.