I'm often hearing it's all too commercial these days, in what way exactly? I'm 28 but as far as I can remember Christmas has always been commercial, it's nothing new. People were going mad in the shops and spending loads back in the 90s.

Yes. I think it's just we have more channels now, so people see more adverts, there's more space for advertisers, it's enabled it to start earlier and earlier so people get sick of it and start saying it's more commercial now, when it's just more visible now.

Of course it has.

It's a rather blatant hypocrisy here - we champion the free market, the economy, etc, and then complaints arise when it becomes part of our national celebrations. Well it's not as if you can champion all this stuff, and then demand a 'step back' because you've got some specific attachment to a date.

people going out for christmas dinner wasn't like it is now, and the pubs weren't so extortionate, I had at least ten pubs near me that didn't charge you entry on NYE

I remember years ago my pub used to do it, they initially started because it stopped some people coming in. They tried to keep NYE full of regulars - back when a pub had enough regulars to fill it

ETA: The idea also was that, if somebody paid to enter, they would stay there for the evening.

no it hasnt.

back in the 60's when i was growing up crimbo didnt start until into december, there was little strong commercialism, it was a fraction of what it is today.

crimbo songs on the radio and in stores where carols, not bloody slade and wizzard..

there was far less hype, and what there was didnt start until into december.

it was a lot more sober, there was far less money to go around, there was only 3 black and white tv channels. tv wasnt on all day.

it was far better.

nonsense..... see above.

My memory is rather different. I remember my Dad bemoaning how commercial it was compared with when he was the same age (mind you, given that when he was the same age, the Blitz was in full swing and rationing was in force, he might have had a point). And while there might only have been three TV channels, the odds that one of them might be showing something you actually wanted to see were quite reasonable.

Yes it always been commercialised but in the past it would be nothing like it is today.
Its a time mostly for children but it seem all year round these days are for children and young adults.
They want nothing but the best and if its not the best they feel ashamed to show their friends what they have.
I also think kids were more content in the past and quite happy to go out and make their own fun times.
things come to them to easy and because their friends have something they feel they have a right for themselves to have the same.
Keeping up with the Joneses is more prevalent today than ever.

Looking back to the 60s it was no where near as commercial as it has become, paper chain decorations, much less spent on food and luxury food would have been a box of chocolates and a bowl of fruit ! It started later too couple of weeks before Christmas before anyone really spoke about it.

Years ago the number of pubs to choose from was much higher and most of them catered for a very local consumer base. People tended to live near their work & as a result their social & work networks were heavily linked.
If you were going to the pub, it was to the same pub as normal where all your friends would be.
Nowadays we all tend to live fair distances from work and in turn often a long way from friends we know from work. This means if we go out we head off to a pub/venue that is mutually convenient to get to and is normally in town centres (this is a little different in heavily populated areas like London where quite often the lace of fun is near work and people go straight there instead of home first).
We now tend to go the pub, as our form of entertainment far less often. Whereas 45 years ago people might bee in their local 3-5 times a week for a social get together, for many that is now 1-2 times every fortnight. TV, cinema, the internet, social gatherings at your own home or friends have all become things that replaced the trip to the local.
As a consequence the local doesn't survive and and people stay at home more until we get to new years eve. Then the massive upsurge in numbers wanting to go out to the pub means that the remaining local pubs often open on a ticket basis which seek to look after the client base that has supported them all year, whilst the big town centre pubs see it as an opportunity to make some cash both on the door and by keeping people in the one venue.

I don't think anyone is saying it never has been

It's just with huge social media these days and media/advertising in general, its been magnified over the years, that there is no question

But yeh, it's always bee commercial

I reckon it's been commercial since before it was even Christmas!
In the northern hemisphere the winter solstice fall conveniently close to date chosen to mark the supposed birth of Christ. Much like the tradition we have of gathering together and feasting at Christmas, this is what was done to mark the start of winter and the harshest weather of the year arriving.
The buying/selling & bartering of service, goods and wears would probably have seen an upsurge at this time in preparation for the festival.

In the modern world, the ability of the sales people to create demand for products it at the highest it has ever been & sadly seems like it's only going to get worse.

I bet they played White Christmas, Nat King Cole's Christmas hit, and other commerical/pop records too. They didn't play Slade and Wizzard because they hadn't been sung yet

Example: 1957 The Goons - I'm Walking Backwards for Christmas (No.4); Brenda Lee had a hit in '58, Max Bygraves in '59, Elvis, Andy Williams, Connie Francis, Tommy Steele and many, many others. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...United_Kingdom

That's because times are different, but I remember wanting the same records my friends had, the same stereo, the same bell-bottomed jeans, the same jackets, etc. I wanted the toys other kids had, the up-to-date electronics (even if that was just a latest-model calculator ). Mums wanted the latest food mixer, oven, washing-machine.

If we'd had the internet and social media back then, we'd have been even more vocal about what we wanted. We were still influenced by TV, there was advertising once itv came along, there were still papers and magazines flogging things.

It was just less, because there were fewer ways of communicating.

Enjoying logging on to the internet, are we?

Christmas hasn't always been as commercialised as it is now.

When my father was growing up in the 1950s and 60s, his parents might take him into the city centre to see the lights at night, but his Christmas presents would typically be an orange (yes, really!), a few toys, plus practical stuff like clothes and shoes. Nobody really mentioned it at all until around mid-December. He could forget about wanting an £80 pair of trainers or whatever - there simply wasn't the money for that.

During my childhood in the 1980s and 90s, things had moved on a lot, but it was nowhere near as commercialised as it is now. One major change I've noticed is that shopping centres and department stores no longer put up Nativity scenes.

I can understand why, if you're not a Christian, you might not consider it relevant to you, personally, but the standard excuse that it might 'offend' people of other faiths doesn't cut it with me because: 1. Nobody from any other faith has EVER said to me that they find the Nativity scene offensive and 2. If you don't like it, just ignore it, there's no need to feel offended by it.

There were more presents when I was growing up in the 1980s and 90s than during my father's childhood, but the build-up wasn't as excessive or as commercially intense as it is now.

I DO recall there was a greater warmth to it, though, with things like brass bands playing Christmas carols in the high street, and one street near where we lived used to make a real effort to put up Christmas lights, something that fizzled out around the early 2000s.

Part of that warmth might just be nostalgia on my part, though. I came from a small family that was 'top heavy' on older people as I was growing up, and inevitably many have passed away as the years have gone by, which means that I have very few blood relatives to share Christmas with now.

I blame the wise men.

relative isnt it... of course the 60's were more commercial then the 40's.. but today its more commercial by far then it was , its grown year on year, possibly due to more wealth.


cant speak for the 50's, but there wasnt a lot of piped crimbo songs the way there is today. white christmas is possibly the only one i recall from the 60's. there certainly wasnt the hype there is now and carols were far more common on radio/tv then they are now.... but then again christianity had a far larger profile , sunday was 'gods day' with all shops shut etc.


sorry old bean, but to suggest crimbo has always been commercial on the scale it is now is rubbish . theres probably not much difference in the last 20 years or so, but crimbo today is a million miles removed from the crimbos i had in the 60's.

Did anyone else of a older generation smile at the idea that the 1990s were somehow back in the day I think of that as a year or so ago


The 1950s /60s were a zillion miles away from the Christmas of today.. It was not depressing, as Christmas was not thought about until mid Dec . Most trees and decs would go up Christmas eve.
I would love it to still be like that. it was magical and special then. Now it starts to early and most are fed up with it by the time it gets here.

I thought the same. I suppose we all, when thinking back to Christmas past, think back to out childhoods, so for me 60s and 70s. It may not have been as commercial but I do remember constant toy adverts on the TV.

We did think about it before December because my dad raised canons for the table and they were ordered a while in advance. I hated plucking the bloody things.

No, undoubtedly it isn't on the scale it is now, but Christmas was still commercial in the '60s and before. Of course, it's going to seem "more commercial" now, but that's only because we're more saturated with advertisements due to having more mediums to advertise on, so of course it's going to seem like it's "more" commercial.

While there might be a point about losing some 'traditional' aspects to Christmas, to say that it has only been commercialised in the last couple of decades is a nonsense. For as long as there's been advertising there's been advertising that has involved Christmas. The real complaint is that the whole world is a lot more commercialised now, and that Christmas hasn't escaped that.

Try telling Mary that! Tut tut...

Can just say it was capons we raised, not canons.

Lol!
I was just thinking " canons for the table"... that's a bit extreme. Couldn't your dad just have one of those little brass gongs to summon people to dinner?