There’s something off-putting about shopping malls, especially at Christmas time. Halloween is bad enough, with the life-sized skeletons and witches appearing around Labour Day. And don’t get me started on the ‘happy Halloween’ mantra everyone yells now. Talk about a commercial bastardization- I well remember when All Hallows Eve was a celebration of the dead and was meant to scare us little buggers into compliance. We used to get dressed up to ward off the goblins and ghosts, not embrace them. But October 31st is now the second most lucrative sales day. However, it’s still a pale imitation of the real reason we can bear the drag of long, cold, grey days. The crown, of course, belongs to Christmas, which officially starts the day…

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