Christmas Shopping

It's meant to be my annual Gentlemen's Christmas Shopping Night in a few hours but illness and age has withered the group down to me. As I don't fancy solo drinking in town this year's is postponed. Fear not though, here's a post I've rescued from my old blog site on this highly significant event.

The Festive Season is upon us already and the shops are open late, hoping to tempt us into spending more money. Is there really a credit crunch with added liquidity problems ?

The run up to Christmas sees the local shops open late on a Thursday evening to help those who can't go during the normal hours. Many years ago a friend and I took advantage of this and we still do to this very day. As we were young and fancy free back in the day we decided that after our respective shopping trips we'd meet up and review each other's purchases. As most of the shops are on Strand Street and cafe don't open late it was decided the meeting would take place in the Waterloo for ease.

I arrived early clutching one very small package only to find my shopping counterpart already at the bar and similarly unencumbered with festive ware but ready for a nights drinking. And "lo" as the angel said Gentlemen's Christmas Shopping Night was born. Just an excuse to have a couple of drinks with friends.

Over the years the night has expanded to take in a larger number of similarly minded folk. Anyone is welcome as long as they are carrying a small piece of Christmas related stuff, preferably purchased on the night. My favorite for some years was a string of tinsel but I now have more of this than I have tree to hang it from so my range of purchasing has extended to gift tags. New members of the shopping Night sometimes get carried away with the concept and actually bring proper shopping. Shame on you. You're a man in a pub.

Excess on the Shopping Night can cause the liquidity problems referred to earlier. Drink responsibly and just as importantly drink up, there's time for one more before last orders.

Originally posted Dec 2007