Christmas in June? Gobble off.

It is looking suspiciously like it is restaurants who start this. *shake my fists at them* in a comedy "why I awd to" manner. Yep - selling Christmas in June, restaurants and bars appear to be first. Eateries around Belfast would like you to now start thinking about your festive preparations for in 6 months time.

Last week on the 21st of June - this date's significance being it is the longest day of the year... aka the summer solstice and I saw my first 'Book your Christmas Party here' banner of the year - a banner advertising the fact you can now book to celebrate a festival centred around the shortest day of the year... the winter solstice!

But why! I mean, if the planet Earth hasn't even made it half way around the sun or another spin around it's axis, you'd think a meal time booking could wait - it's not like anyone is getting married on a specific date at a specific time in one specific place.

I can understand being prepared and even making sure you get in early for limited places but surely the venues who fill up quickly could hold back and still be full? What happens if they're advertising steak at a set price now and food prices treble between now and then and they have to honour it? Is it really in a restaurants best interest to have reservations 6 months in advance? Is their star chef quitting next week and do they want people to book before they find out? Is it even in the customers best interest - who's to say the service isn't going to go down hill and they might get better for cheaper else where? After all 6 months is a long time - 1/157.7th of an average person's life expectancy in Northern Ireland in 2008 in fact!

For a second I suspected it might be to do with the Turkey farming process in that 6 months might be about the right time to hatch and fatten them up. However, surely since most people won't book now, the market won't know anyway. I just don't get it. All it does is make me worry about saving up for actual Christmas festivities when I should be worrying about enjoying the summer and the next 6 months.

Seriously, would it hurt to take Christmas off the menu for just a few months more and at least give us a full 6 months of the rest of the year? Sure, if they advertise Christmas too early, the Turkeys might find out and have time to hatch an escape plan... oh wait, most of this years stock probably haven't even been hatched yet.

Sorry, I just had to get that out - I feel much better now!