The Manicou Report

So last night I am standing in my kitchen (preparing a delicious Ramen Noodle dinner, mind you) when to my utter surprise I think I hear Christmas bells coming from the TV. So immediately I think that I’m wrong and that it must be something else. I’m thinking it’s just August 3rd, there’s no way there

can be an ad for a Christmas sale this early in the year. I also remember that TSTT has a “Bundles of Joy” ad for their TSTT Smart Choice packages that kind of sounds like a Christmas carol, so surely it must be one of those deals. I therefore go into the living room to investigate and there in all it’s red Christmas glory is a Christmas ad for courts. Say what?

Now when people talk about the over-commercialization of Christmas this is a prime example. Here is a mighty furniture and electronics store, five months before the actual date selling Christmas to us. And I’m sitting here wondering why? I don’t know about anyone else but Christmas is something special to me. That whole period has it own smells, climate, cheer, tastes, music and anything else not available at any other time of year. So when a furniture giant sees it fit to start Christmas festivities on any day they please, it dismays me. And then it dawns on me why on so many Christmases past, I no longer felt anticipation for the day. And on Christmas day itself, I’m already tired of it - all because a furniture store wants to sell more blenders.

To some this may seem like a juvenile rant, but can Courts really do that? Can they really draw out, and as a result spoil the holiday for those of us who savour the days leading up to it? Why do they think it’s fit to play music with “jingle bells” and talk about shopping early in time to qualify for Christmas prizes? Can they just completely change the mood and tempo of Trinidad to suit it’s own financial calender? I don’t know about anyone else, but that really, really irks me.