Suzanne Harrington: We're forced to inhale Christmas like microplastics — I give up

"It's won, hasn’t it? The Christmas industrial complex. It’s won. It’s beaten us down, worn us out, so now we accept that Christmas isn’t a 48 hour thing in late December, but starts the day after Halloween. Two full months, instead of two days."

'Spirit of Christmas' performers who starred in a Christmas Show at the INEC Killarney, in 2006 - arguably the outset of Christmasmania. Photo: Valerie O'Sullivan

If a symptom of PTSD is being troubled by recurring mental images, then a fat man crossing the road with a giant turkey on his head – a joke festive one made of beige shiny fabric – has done it for me. 

I can’t get it out of my head. Not just a fat man in a hideous Christmas jumper wearing a joke turkey hat in public, but the fact that it happened in November.