With Christmas rapidly approaching, the merchandising is reaching fever pitch. Clearly things are getting pretty desperate out there for many businesses. This year I've tried harder than usual to buy locally made presents, with mixed success.

School fairs are still a good source, but today they're very different from the fairs I used to go to years ago. Now most city schools seem to make their money by leasing out space to stall holders, keeping only the guaranteed money-spinners such as the sausages and raffles to run themselves.

One thing has stayed the same: almost all the stallholders are women. Most have stocks of home made goods ranging from jams, pickles, bottled fruit and cakes to beautifully made children's clothing and knick-knacks. At the prices they charge, they are obviously getting very little for their labour. The only difference from fairs of the past is that now they get to keep some of the money they earn for themselves and their families, instead of handing it all over to the school.

Some have bought commercial franchises, not just for well-known stalwarts such as Tupperware, still going strong, but for a whole range of new and mostly fairly unimpressive imported children's games, decorations, party products, etc. These stallholders don't seem to be attracting much custom, and tend to look more downtrodden and more desperate than the others. But overall, there often seems to be a socio-economic gap between the school parents and the stallholders. There must be a whole army of women trudging from suburb to suburb each weekend, hoping to tempt the more affluent to spend up large at Christmas.

Charities traditionally raise money through selling cards as well as small gifts and decorations. However, I'm hearing reports that email is fast eroding the card market. Of course, you can't put an email on the mantelpiece. But this probably won't bother many of those who have Internet access. They're likely to decide that it's quicker, easier and cheaper to copy one letter electronically, with minor adjustments, to a whole list of friends and relations than to send them all cards.

As for the little decorations, they don't stand much of a chance either. This year the shops are flooded with pretty "instant heirlooms" - golden angels, Santas, cute bears and rocking horses - all made in China and all with remarkably low price tags (this year pushed down even further by a raft of pre-Christmas discounts and sales). They conjure up an odd vision of the global economy: rows of young Chinese women toiling long hours over mountains of gold, red and green, fitting together Victorian-style trinkets for a midwinter Christian festival which has been transported to the South Pacific summer and transmuted into the biggest marketing opportunity of the year.

Next year I'm going to plan a resistance campaign well ahead of time: a combination of straight donations, no-present agreements, and everything else home-made (or at least bought home-made). Surely it can't take much longer than all the anxious shopping does now, as I try to combine thrifty bargain hunting with generous thoughtfulness. I may be hastening the Great Depression as a result, but somehow I doubt it. Merry Christmas, everyone.

Email Anne Else
 

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