REBECCA SHIELDS COLUMN: It's hard to believe I know, but Easter is only 135 days away and I'm already getting excited.

Now believe me, all this talk about the Christian calendar's most celebrated entry is not as sad as it may initially sound.

Currently you see, no matter where I go, people can't wait to debate with me this week's hottest topic Christmas.

Don't get me wrong. I love Christmas, but not this early, this soon, this maddeningly now.

It's still months away, for goodness sake, which is why I tend to concentrate on Easter so much around this time of year.

Just around the time I begin to stress out about which aunt to invite for cold meats on Boxing Day, I remind myself that Easter eggs will soon be in the shops (say, January 2) and I noticeably breathe easier.

Unlike Christmas Day, come Easter Sunday, there's never any headache over who to visit once the choccies have been opened and devoured just a small point of debate on which relative will least likely turn green once the kids starting vomiting.

Personally, I have no qualms about sinking my teeth into as much chocolate as I can get my mitts on and an Easter egg hunt represents the best form of exercise there is.

Curiously, however, munch on a chocolate bunny in Australia (sometimes I like to reach out to our international audience) and you'll find you're munching on a pest that farmers would gladly eradicate.

Believe it or not, for the past decade there has been a movement to replace the symbol of a rabbit with a bilby, a furry member of the bandicoot family.

Somehow I can't see Thornton's churning out millions of bandicoots with 'love you, snuggles' piped on their stomachs in white icing.