A/N – I’m sure many will relate to this guest post from Yvonne. I’d love to hear your thoughts so leave me a comment at the end.  Michelle

Wherever you are, it’s the last quarter of the year and Christmas is around the calendar corner. Call me the Grinch, but I have to admit to being less than Skippy-as-an-Aussie-roo at the prospect.

I’ve tried handling the early onslaught of past festive seasons by furtive ostriching –head-in-sand planting, with much self-assurance of good intentions to emerge in plenty of time – after all, who doesn’t want to escape the tinsel and jingles besieging us, when we’ve barely packed away the swimming togs.

It’s all the marketers doing, of course: the indecently early arrival of all things Christmassy, like an over-eager party guest turning up when you’re still in your bathrobe. An hour later you’d be thrilled to see them – air-kisses all around; but this early? Well, let’s just say that words like, ‘candy cane’ and negative connotations relating to regions unreachable by even the glow of Rudolf’s shiny red nose, spring to mind.

Unsurprisingly, my curmudgeonly attitude has served me about as well as an over flambed Christmas pudding: emerging from my sand dune of denial, at the tail end of the Christmas countdown, frazzled and poorly prepared.

So I’m turning over a new (Spring or Fall) leaf: no more ducking, deleting or diving for the sand-pit at the first sign of the C word. I might even schedule a couple of pinnacles-of-preparedness meetings …

Yvonne Toering is a business development consultant who has worked with leading organisations and brands including Securicor Group, Vodafone Group, ASDA as well as most of the UK’s major high street retail chains including Marks and Spencer Plc, the National Health Service, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Mars UK, and the Grand Metropolitan Group, owners of Burger King, Smirnoff, Samuel Webster Brewers, Haagen Daas, Cinzano and other iconic brands.