Too early for Christmas?

Ok, call me Scrooge but with the growing number of Christmas decorations appearing in shop windows and "Christmas trees for sale HERE!" signs greeting me every time I pass a DIY store, I can't help but think that things have got a bit ridiculous. Since September, adverts mentioning the 'C' word have become more and more frequent, as have people's Facebook status'. I remember when, even in the many years after learning that Santa Claus didn't wriggle down our chimney each year, feeling warm and fuzzy thinking about Christmas. There was still a magic to the season and I associated it with frosty air, cinnamon scented candles and sticking cloves in oranges. This all happened after the first of December, it was a family tradition. That was when advent (and of course the chocolate advent calendar) started, and when all the festivities would begin. But over the past few years my eyes have opened up to the commercialisation of the festive season and it has begun to put a dampener on the excitement. For the past few years I've come to measure when is acceptable to start getting into the Christmas spirit by the Coca Cola advert. I grew up watching that advert year after year and as a child, it always seemed to mark the turn of the weather and the excitement that suddenly engulfed London, and indeed our family home. But I fear it's being shown earlier and earlier. This said advert appeared on our screen for the first time last week, in mid-November, and so I am having to wrestle with my childhood self and ask, is it Christmas now, or not?