A Kedington Christmas Is Worth Waiting For.

The Editor Has A Mince Pie In Tim Burton's classic Christmas animation The Nightmare Before Christmas the king of Halloween, Jack Skellington stages a disastrous takeover of Christmas. A decade on and we discover that this particular little master piece got the story entirely the wrong way round.

Please don't get me wrong at this point, I love Christmas, it's my favourite time of year and incredibly special to me. A Christmas carol is one of my favourite books and as Scrooge himself promised himself I do try to keep the spirit of Christmas in my heart all year round, but once past January 5th that is a good place for it.

This year at the beginning of September we had Christmas wrapping for sale on Haverhill High Street; Just this week I saw Halloween masks in a shop window hanging off a display of Quality St Christmas tins complete with cardboard Christmas tree. Sainsbury's has re-opened with it's longest isle dedicated to Christmas with just a few feet of Halloween stuff at the far end and another isle that is a wall of Quality Street, Roses and Celebrations the like of which Pink Floyd would be jealous of. All of this before the end of September with Autumn barely begun and at least two major way markers of the year in the shape of Halloween and Guy Fawkes Night still over a month away. I'm going to say this straight up, It's too early for Christmas.

Having said what I have said I feel I should probably justify it. To do that one has to find what is important in Christmas. For that let us set aside the ceremonials, the religious connotations and physical things. The thing that makes Christmas special is that most intangible of things the Christmas Spirit, It's both a state of mind and a feeling and can do an immense amount of good and one part of that feeling is the sense of special. When I was a child it started with the first door on the advent calender and built up from there to the big day. Now that feeling of special is stretched out so that even on the big Day it's self it wearing quite thin. It's the early start to proceedings that is doing this.

It's not that I don't have some sympathy for these shops. To an extent they have been pushed in to it year after year. It only takes one to go for it to force the rest to follow. I think it started with Woolworths. They always seemed to be the first with their Christmas gear out. I remember back in about 2003 walking into one on the outskirts of London in early November to hear Slade coming over the sound system. They would have all the years new Christmas decorations and ideas in the store first and often at what seemed at the time a low low price or even a discount (all be it from a price that will never actually be charged at any time during the year). The kind of stuff people buy at Christmas relies a lot on people going "oooh Shiny" and buying the new decoration idea, but there is only so much space for decorations in any house only so many presents one can buy before all the stockings are full or the wallets are empty. Only so many people on a persons Christmas card list so every shop has to get people to feel that Christmas purchase impulse at their shop first. Hence in the battle to be first each year the shops got earlier and earlier to beat their rivals and nobody dared fall behind. Even the head of Thorntons wrote recently in trade paper Retail Express "Shoppers will look for good deals early on in the season, so aim to launch your range in September to whet the appetite of your consumers." Then again what would Thorntons know- the same article announced their Christmas range as including "Penguin Palls, Santa and his Reindeer and A Football Boot." How very seasonal.

So is there no escape from a Christmas stretched so thin across the year you could put a torch on the other side and do shadow plays? Fear not for this is Kedington there is at least some rest bite if you choose to take the chance. Kedington News Post Office and Kedington Stores will both be holding off as long as possible, but they will only be able to keep doing this if people hold off on their Christmas shopping to give Kedington shops a chance at the appropriate time otherwise next year they will have to bring things forwards too.
Dillip From Kedington Stores says that the last Date his suppliers will let him take delivery of his Christmas stock is the last week of October but he is holding off to then. So from the beginning of November he will have plenty of traditional Christmas fayre of both the eating and drinking variety and discounts on many items.
Kedington News Post Office up on Westward Deals will be wowing people with their usual stunning range of high quality cards and gift Wrappings and of course all your favourite Christmas sweets and chocolates (not sure they will have any football boots though).
Of course nobody will be buying their meat too early but Alan the Butchers will be offering a truly festive range from the the most succulent traditional turkey, salted beef, pickles and hams to less common (these days) Christmas meats (We've had both Goose and Boar from there in Christmas' past) and all of a tremendously high quality that only years of experience can provide.

When I was a child half the excitement of Christmas came from having to patently wait for it. Why not try waiting for a Kedington Christmas this year.

P.S. I'm thinking of running a Kedington News Christmas lights contest if we can find a sponsor. Any sponsors out there want to help encourage the Kedington Christmas spirit?

Article by M P Upton
The editorial section is an opinion piece based in part on the opinions of the editor. If you have an opinion you wish to raise or further information on a subject covered please contact Editor@KedingtonNews.co.uk