It’s happening; I can feel it in the air. It’s barely November and already the steady increase of crazy Christmas consumerism has begun! As soon as the flurry of Halloween costumes, confectionary and unidentified themed plastic objects left shop windows, in popped the Christmas displays to fill the capitalist gap and empty our pockets. Still, no one is forcing us to buy things we don’t need. Are they?

In my previous life (not the one where I was a lucky cat who slept all day in a warm Californian sun…) I worked in retail management. It was my job to make people purchase more; from creating eye catching window displays, and buying in exciting “new” stock, to strategically placing impulse items by the till to catch people out as they stood in the queue, bored and eyes wandering. Christmas was when the big boys came out; the sparkle, the colourfully Christmassy packaging (exactly the same item as usual, only green and red) and of course, the wonderful sales charm. Continue reading Trading Traditions and Ditching Consumerism →