Town in "Uproar" As Christmas Lights Go Up - 77 Days Early

It seems Christmas just keeps coming earlier and earlier every year:

Christmas comes but once a year - although in some areas it just happens to come much sooner than others.

Like in Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, where the festive lights came on last Friday - and stayed on throughout the weekend - because of health and safety checks.

Stunned visitors to the market town found themselves strolling beneath thousands of colourful bulbs a full 80 days before Christmas day itself and just a couple of weeks into autumn.

Chief critic of the £36,000 out-of-season display was Tory county councillor Paul Hopfensperger - despite the fact his wife, Rebecca, is responsible for it as the town's mayor and chair of its Christmas lights committee.

'The whole town is in uproar. Everyone has been complaining to me about them,' he said.

'Not only are the lights up but they were on over the entire weekend.

'I have always been one for celebrating Christmas in December. I certainly hate seeing Christmas lights before we have even had Halloween or bonfire night.

'It makes me cringe to see all the Christmas stuff in the shops earlier and earlier. It is just sickening and completely wrong that the lights have gone up now.

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Mrs Hopfensperger yesterday added the Christmas lights would now stay off until she switched them on officially on November 16.

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My Comments:
So, they were only testing the lights 80 days out from Christmas and left them on over an entire weekend. Nevertheless, the "official" switch-on date is November 16? That's still a tad early. Most towns in the U.S. wait until after Thanksgiving (this year, November 23).

I suppose waiting until after Advent is completely out of the question. Might put a damper on the all-important "Holiday" shopping season.

By the way, Bury St Edmunds is, as the name suggests, the final resting place of East Anglian king, St. Edmund the Martyr.