Well it's official - according to all the retailers this weekend, Christmas is on its way and the silly season is truly upon us, oh jingle bells, yay. The first Christmas decorations in store always freak me out. It's too soon, there's too much to do still before the end of the year, and I haven't planned anything for Christmas yet. Plus, there's just something so obscene about fake snow and sleighs and snowmen in the 30 deg plus heat that Jo'burg is experiencing and will continue to do so throughout the festive season. (The Proudly SA campaign should work on a truly African festive season at some point, embracing all cultures.) But what really does me in are the Christmas carols that follow one from shop to shop - they are enough to make me want to drown myself in a barrel of egg nog (does anyone even like egg nog?) But at least we can still rely on the promotional gift industry to provide merriment as all the festive promo's, invites and branded "desk toys" and other oddities arrive! We have some special requests here at Biz: no more cupcakes please - done to death, and anyway they don't travel well; branding/logos should be removable, so gifts can be recycled for unexpected Christmas guests; we have enough wire toys cluttering our desks; and chocolate and wine is always a sure thing and makes the editor very popular among colleagues and friends... :-) Have a good one! Louise Marsland, Editor, editor@bizcommunity.com