It’s Almost Christmas!
Apparently we are already in the run up to Christmas. At least we are according to Harrods and Selfridges, who started selling Christmas tat on July 28th this year. I know the weather has been pretty crap, but this is taking it a bit far.
As a general rule of thumb, I don’t think you should be able to buy Christmas things in England while wearing shorts. Unless you are an American tourist – they seem to wear shorts all year round. In fact the reasoning behind this early start is to cater for these Americans. According to Geraldine James, who is in charge of buying at the Christmas department at Selfridges: “[M]ost of our customers are international visitors, from China, the Middle East, America – the Americans love Christmas – and the Christmas shop attracts tourists.”
I’ve been to China and America and I distinctly remember seeing shops there that sold Christmas items. It just doesn’t make sense. Maybe it’s because Selfridges has an actual Christmas department. They must have just gotten bored and needed to justify their existence. I’m sure the Easter department are pretty excited by all this. They’re next. There will be an Easter egg department in Harrods by Boxing day.
I always find it a bit sad when you see people in documentaries who start to celebrate Christmas months before December and get all excited for months. They are usually a bit lonely. I think I am a bit sad that Harrods and Selfridges are doing this in July because it just shows how desperate and out of ideas they are in the recession. You can imagine the meeting:
“People aren’t buying enough things. What can we do?”
“Everyone loves Christmas! Why don’t we just start selling baubles and plastic holly and things?”
“But it’s July! People won’t… we should sell… yeah, sod it, go on then. Americans like Christmas don’t they?Yeah! Woohoo Christmas!”
These people make lots more money than most of us.
On the other hand I am tempted to think fuck it. In London, for the entire month of December, people are drunk pretty much all the time. You’re allowed to drink from lunchtime onward and everyone just thinks you are a fun Christmas-loving kind of guy. Why am I complaining like some kind of Scrooge that Christmas cheer starts earlier every year? Maybe the shops aren’t desperate to cash in on the one proven thing that nets them lots of money, maybe they just love Santa!
So happy Christmas everyone! Mine’s a Guinness!
