Year after year as one gets older the preparation for Christmas seems to start earlier every year.

Late September and early October the majority of shops in Norwich, and I have no doubt every other shop in the country starts advertising and stocking up with all their Christmas goods.

Packet after package of Christmas cards nearly all with idyllic scenes of Christmases past with snow (I can only remember that happening once in my life) and sweet looking robins (who spend all the summer months in my garden fighting like hell with each other), tin after tin of every type of chocolates made, packets of dates (is there a law stating that they can only be eaten at Christmas?), Christmas puddings (probably made last year or the year before) and high piles of boxes of a popular individually-wrapped chocolates on which advertising on TV has already started are now in nearly of our large to medium size shops.

MORE: Deck the halls! Jarrold unveil Norwich's first Christmas window displayThis is without all the advertising in the papers and magazines about where you can book your works Christmas dinner or where you can spend the Christmas period out of your house being pampered and waited on every minute.

Women with children and a partner/husband must dream that one day it would be them.

It is a shame that what Christmas is really about has been forgotten by most people especially now that we are a multi-cultural country and Christmas is now seen by many as a commercial opportunity to simply make money and forget the religious side.