Opening Lines

AND so this is Christmas, and what have you done? “NOT A THING” says you, “I thought I had more time”.

There are a number of landmark retail days in the lead-up to Christmas. In America they have Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. Shops have huge discounts to attract shoppers. Its main purpose is to provide European television stations with “They’re stone-mad in the States” clips for the end of the news. We all chuckle as we watch a lot of armed, angry big-boned people fighting at the sliding doors of Walmart.

The following Monday is Cyber Monday, when large numbers of people do their online shopping and spend the rest of December fretting about the returns policy on the site.