A few weeks ago Selfridges allegedly sent out a press release announcing there were “Only 143 shopping days until Christmas”.
Twelve days ago the Daily Mail was lamenting about the commercialisation of Christmas announcing, “With more than a third of the year still to go and the summer holidays in full swing, Harrods and Selfridges launched their Christmas shops”.
Finally last week an email from Yahoo landed in my inbox urging me to buy some Christmas advertising NOW. They carried on explaining that people start looking for Christmas gifts as early as July. The proof being in the (early) Christmas pudding, the most popular searches for Christmas on Yahoo last month were:
- Christmas gift
- Christmas
- Christmas light
- Christmas tree
- Christmas card
- Christmas decoration
- Christmas gift idea
- Christmas present
- Christmas hamper
- Christmas shopping
- Artificial Christmas tree
- Christmas toy
- Father Christmas
- Unique Christmas gift
- Christmas gift for man
- Christmas ornament
- Christmas golf gift
- Christmas food hamper
- Unusual Christmas gift
The final paragraph of the email informed me “The volume of Christmas related searches starts to grow in July so it is imperative that your business is visible to these Christmas Shoppers early on in the year. This will insure you don’t miss out on any early Christmas sales.”
As I was thinking about all those people buying Christmas gifts while the rest of us were getting a suntan, I realised they might actually be the smart ones. Just think of the benefits - afterall they:
- Never face the stress of last minute shopping
- Have plenty of time to come up with good Christmas gift ideas
- Spread the costs over a few months (no painful overdraft in January)
- Are relaxed in December, ready to enjoy Christmas
So I did it. I opened the suppliers’ Christmas catalogues and ordered my Christmas balloons (one of them pictured here). They should be online soon!
PS: I could not possibly bring myself to actually shop for Christmas gifts for friends and family. Not that I thought it was madness, I just found it impossible to get in the mood. Even singing “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” did not do the trick!
January 29th, 2007 at 6:12 am
Hi,
I found your blog via google by accident and have to admit that youve a really interesting blog
Just saved your feed in my reader, have a nice day