The multitude of festivals, holidays and other events means that decorations and products tend to appear around a month before that particular event. That’s long enough to me.

In the last few months, we’ve had National Day, Mooncake Festival, Halloween and now it’s almost time for the East Asian Games. What I love about this is that Christmas decorations have only now begun to appear and some buildings which are usually lit up with Christmas lights still show lights for the Games.

I love that the Christmas Season has only just begun. Cards have only just gone on sales as the Halloween cards and trinkets have disappeared, decorations are slowly beginning to fill the city and I haven’t even heard one Christmas carol yet.

Christmas is one of my favourite times of the year and I enjoy that the festivities of it. I don’t like decorations being hung too soon as it just seems like a marketing tool followed closely be Easter. I like getting into the spirit in mid-November through to December. Any earlier just seems a bit too commercial.

Over this period last year, I was involved in redundancies at my work. This is a lousy time of year to do this kind of exercise but it is not viewed so badly in Asia as what it would be in Australia. As an Australian in Asia, this was difficult to accept. To send people home to their families, with no role, so close to Christmas and knowing they would likely find it difficult to find a new position given the economic climate, was not pleasant. Not saying redundancies ever are, but there is a time and a place and Christmas, to me, is never the time.

This was the first time my company had done redundancies in HK so my role was to teach what was involved, train those that needed it, coach the managers and ensure the process went as smoothly as possible. Afterwards, I supported the affected staff members and their colleagues staying behind. On the plus side, I did receive positive feedback from all those involved about how smoothly it went and they appreciated what we had done for them. Bizarrely, this just made me feel more sad but I guess if the feedback had been the opposite, I’d have felt even worse.

While culturally the timing of this exercise may not have been so bad, for me, it was lousy. I would walk through the building each day hearing the carols and seeing the decorations yet they were so disconnected to what was going on in the office, that they may as well not have even been there. Normally I’m sick of hearing the same carol after about the 53rd time but that year, I would have no idea which carols they had on the loop in the shopping complex on my way to work..

This year, I’m crossing my fingers that there’s not a repeat. It’s not looking likely but in these times, it’s difficult to have much certainty.

In the meantime, I’m going to enjoy the festivities and wait for the Christmas Tree in our building to be erected. Each year is different and each time it is unusual. I’m getting excited already!