83% Object To Christmas Decorations In shops Before December

Early results from a poll on the Keep Christmas Special website show that 92% of voters object to shops stocking Christmas merchandise before Bonfire night, and 83% don't want shops to put up Christmas decorations up before December. The results are further evidence that consumers are rebelling against the retailers' Christmas season that now starts before children have finished their summer holidays. The Keep Christmas Special website give a voice to everyone who is fed up with the four-month build up to Christmas and wants to see retailers enter into the spirit of Christmas by keeping it special.

Nottingham, UK (PRWEB) October 23, 2004 -- It's become a depressing sight: Christmas goods in the shops before the end of the school summer holidays. By bonfire night Christmas fare is taking over the shops, and a week or so later Christmas decorations appear in shopping centres.

By the time December arrives we've been ducking decorations, listening to Christmas tunes and been bombarded by retail promotions for months. Any sense that Christmas is a special event is a distant memory and has been swamped by the four-month retail build-up.

The Keep Christmas Special campaign with a single aim: to encourage retailers to respect their customers' wishes and reduce the number of weeks that they display Christmas goods and decorations. The campaign is not allied to any other campaign and it does not have a religious agenda.

There's an increasing sense of dismay amongst the public at the sight of Christmas goods in the shops at the end of the summer. According to a ICM survey, 77% of the population think Christmas comes too early. We're aiming to turn this opinion into pressure on retailers. Letting them know that the majority of their customers have had enough of their assertion that "it's never too early for Christmas". Just getting shops to keep September Christmas-free would be a big success in turning the tide." Paul Glover from the Keep Christmas Special website.

Poll Results

When is the earliest that you want to see Christmas goods in shops?

Any time   6%

"Christmas before Halloween? Stupid"
"Sick of it already and it's only 7th Oct"
"Yes! A campaign I can really approve of."
"Thank goodness, I am not the only one..."
"Christmas decorations are already up on one hotel in Cardiff!"
"The early Christmas decorations depress me. If the shops want to keep it up, then they had better start expecting more and more people to buy online."
"In Dobbies Garden Centre in Glasgow they were putting out Christmas goods in the middle of the school summer holidays."
"Shops make 40% of their income over Christmas. Their purpose in extending the season is to try and get your money before their competitors do. This extension of the season only serves to dilute the specialness and increase stress."
"Early Christmas is a 'land-grab' for retailers to hijack a non-commercial spiritual event for their own ends. Early Christmas displays are stressful and depressing and destroy any non-commercial value that Christmas holds."
"We should keep all our festivals special and not allow retailers to make them overlap. Christmas goods and decorations should under no circumstances be allowed until Bonfire Night is well and truly finished. Similarly, I think that Easter goods should not be allowed to go on sale until after Ash Wednesday."
"My grandmother said it was considered disrespectful in her time to 'celebrate' Christmas before Remembrance Sunday"

http://www.keepchristmasspecial.com
Email: enquiries@keepchristmasspecial.com
Press: pr@keepchristmasspecial.com
Telephone: 0115 914 0545

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