Early Christmas marketing just reached peak stupid.

On Boxing Day last year, I wandered into our local supermarket and stopped short. There in front of me, for sale in the bakery section, were HOT CROSS BUNS.

And that wasn’t the worst of it. When I walked around the corner into the confectionary aisle, I was confronted by these:

Yes, that's right, 13 weeks - 91 days - before Easter, these were on the supermarket shelves. Now, without even bringing into the discussion how old these "fresh" milk chocolate eggs really are by the time Easter does roll around, the question needs to be asked: how soon is too soon to start selling goods for Christmas and Easter? I'm no expert, but I'd say 91 days out is pushing it.

Now this premature obvious money grubbing marketing lunacy has been taken to ridiculous new heights by UK department store giant Selfridges, which has opened its Christmas shop - 143 days before Christmas.

The Independent reports Selfridges has opened its Christmas shop doors with an impressive (some might say ridiculous), selection of more than 150 different lights and trees, 120 types of bon-bons and tens of thousands of baubles on offer.

Considering it's still summer over in UK and the northern December is generally blanketed by snow, the poor guy dressed up as Santa is probably regretting taking the job about now.

Now, I’m no Grinch. In fact I LOVE Christmas, probably more than my own children. But the magic of the season surely cannot survive having it shoved in our face half way through the year, in a season that bears absolutely no resemblance to December 25. In Australia, Christmas is all about the warm breezes, eating mangoes and the smell of jasmine. I mean, I had ice on my grass yesterday. I'm nowhere near ready for the big man to arrive yet.

And there's another thing I'm not ready for: being broke. Put simply, I can’t afford Christmas just yet, so I most definitely do not need to be reminded there are, in theory, only 20 pay days until time runs out.

So I think that it's time we took a stand against this craziness and told the department stores to just Calm The Eff Down and at least let the temperature hit double digits before they start selling Christmas crackers and stockings in the lolly aisle.

How do you feel when you see blatant holiday marketing rolled out far too early in your supermarket? Or is it never too early in the year to hear Mariah's All I Want for Christmas is You?

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