Thursday 12 September 2013

Way too early for Christmas! It's only September!!

It is incredible really! Even though we are in retail and we live for the sight of shoppers coming to our site, there is one thing that we just cannot bring ourselves to do.... and that is starting Christmas in late Summer.

A few years ago I went to London for a weekend and decided to go and do a bit of window-shopping in Harrod's famous store in central London. It was early September and the weather was just amazing. It was warm, with blue skies and people wandering around in shorts and t-shirts. We stepped into Harrod's and made our way down to the basement area (I had to have a look at their latest gadgets and electronics) and as we walked down the stairs, the very first thing we saw was a Christmas tree... in September, on a warm day!

Now I love Christmas as much as the next person and we all know that it has become so commercialised now that the original meaning is lost to more and more people every year. Even so, when I see or hear a mention of Christmas or Christmas Shopping in Summer (and yes, to me September is still Summer!), it just makes me a little ill and makes me feel like running away very quickly.

Luckily, I was able to dismiss the unpleasant experience in London and the lack of taste Harrod's demonstrated in having a Christmas feature this early in the year by explaining it away to myself as perhaps being an 'English' thing. I mean every nation has its own quirks and maybe a Summer Christmas is their way or drawing themselves closer to their Australian friends.

So I have to say that I was even more surprised when I walked into Brown Thomas on Dublin's Grafton Street last weekend (again, just window shopping - I don't have a penny to spend and especially not there) to see the same thing all over again. As I climbed (well, I just stood on the escalator actually), the sight of a Christmas tree loomed up in front of me! So it obviously wasn't just a mad English thing then - the madsers are here too now!

Well, here at Pressieport, while we'd love people to shop like maniacs all year long, we feel that there have to be limits to what we do. September and even October are way too early for Christmas-sy behaviour. Rest assured, you won't ever see that on our site before the clocks change back to winter time and that's a promise!

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