Christmas Can Wait Until Tomorrow. It Has Waited 364 Days. It Can Manage One More

By Morag Leckie, Perthetic Columnist

I have nothing against Christmas. I like a mince pie. I enjoy a parade. I would happily stand on Tay Street on 21 November and watch the lights come on, with fireworks over the North Inch and a man in a hat playing bagpipes louder than a jet.

But today is Halloween. Today belongs to the neep, the sheet with eyeholes and the bairn who tells you a joke so bad you give him extra sweets out of pity.

There is a rule in my house, handed down from my mother: no Christmas until the first of November. Not a word. Not a song. Not a “have you thought about what you’re getting your cousin?”

I am aware the first of November is tomorrow. I am aware that this makes my rule sound less dramatic. That is not the point. The point is that every season deserves its day, and today is not Christmas’s day.

So enjoy the guising. Keep the reindeer in the loft. And if you hear “Freed From Desire” on a neighbour’s speaker tonight, please knock and remind them, gently, that it’s October.

The real story: Perth Christmas lights line-up (The Courier)