Despite the current heatwave, last week saw everyone rockin’ around the Christmas tree as Selfridges on London’s Oxford Street opened its rock’n’roll themed Christmas shop. The first major retailer in the world to open its festive doors for early Christmas shoppers, the department store hired a leather-jacketed Father Christmas, dressed in black, who arrived wearing sunglasses and strumming a guitar!
The first Christmas roll out includes trees, baubles, glitter and tinsel, with the full festive selection going in store in September, to include gifts for pets.
For independent gift retailers, many of whom are holding back until the Autumn shows, Christmas decorations will be leading the way, although for most they won’t go in store until October.
“Christmas can sometimes be a lot like putting a finger in the air to see which way the wind is blowing,” observes David Lorimer, co-owner of three Brocante shops in Fowey, Mevagissey and St Ives. “However, three years ago, we made a conscious decision to expand in winter – we stay open for 364 days a year, despite half the shops closing – and it has got bigger and bigger for us as we’ve got braver.”
In the village of Wombourne in Staffordshire, Hilary Jones, co-owner of Let’s Go Round Again, spends a week putting up Christmas decorations in store at the end of October to be ‘Christmas ready’ in November. “Customers literally pull them off the displays and purchase them,” she comments.
At Narborough Hall in Leicestershire, co-owner Sophie Edwards holds a week of open evenings at the end of October. “They’re very popular and are always packed,” she confirmed.
Top: Selfridges has put in its initial Christmas selection.
