i don't really miss God, but i sure miss Santa Claus.

It's Christmas season!!!!

Don't tell me it's too early. I kept my mouth shut for 1,5 months and decided to go with the American flow where Christmas pretty much starts right after Halloween. Personally, I care as much about Halloween as I do about Christmas. How much? You'll know at the end of this post.

Ever since I came back from my trip to the Netherlands (October 1st), I spent most of my hours at work with filling display table after display table with Christmas decoration and stuff nobody needs, but everyone's buying no matter what.
Somewhere mid-October we successfully saved someone's Christmas, by having some weird decorative cats in stock which he's probably going to wrap in incredibly tasteless wrapping paper and give it to a person who is in deep love with having two oversized decorative cats staring into their soul.
People keep coming into our store leaving an annoyed "Christmas decoration? Already?" comment. A lot of them end up with 30 euros worth of Christmas related articles in their bags. Yes, we love you too.
My love for patriotism is about as big as my love for the Easter bunny, but when it comes to binnen-s in Adventkalender, Santas and reindeer I stick to my folks and get tempted to hug every parent who tells their kid to put the Santa stuff back, because there's no Santa Claus in Austria. And hide the permanent markers or I'll cross out all the s on every single Adventkalender when there's nobody watching.
I've never played Tetris in my life. Not a single time. I'm thinking about picking it up, though. I surely got some skills filling shelves in our store-room with boxes. This week I spent almost five hours non-stop stacking articles,...basically playing real life Tetris.
My personal advice for all those people who've recently discorved their new favorite hobby called shoplifting:

1. If you're going to steal something, at least take something with you that's worth stealing. A palm-sized turtle made out of cheap glass is not a good choice. Nor the fake plastic LED oil lamp. 
2. If you're going to steal something expensive, please check the box and see if there's actually something inside. We sometimes put empty boxes on the shelves as a sort of shoplifting prevention. I hope you enjoy your empty box.
3. If you don't have the money for Christmas presents or simply don't want to spend money on gifts, don't get any. Neither bought nor stolen. There's no need for presents. Bake some cookies, make a delicious Christmas dinner and play a board game with your family and loved-ones. I'm sure they'll appreciate it way more than a decorative wired cone-shaped Christmas tree that looks like a modernized festive version of a Ku Klux Klan hat.

Advice No.3 goes to everyone out there.
Think about the way you celebrate Christmas. Is it worth it?

In the meantime, enjoy your commercially pushed holidays.