Christmas comes (very) early to Carlisle
Last updated at 11:12, Saturday, 25 August 2012
School children are still on their summer holidays and it is four months before the big day.
But that has not stopped Father Christmas from making an unseasonably early appearance in a Carlisle supermarket.
Santa has been spreading a bit of festive joy from his grotto by the main entrance to Asda on Chandler Way this week along with one of his elvish helpers.
The duo were in the store on Thursday, yesterday and are due to be there again today, proving that Christmas is arriving earlier every year.
A customer service manager at the store, said: “We are doing it to promote Christmas savers cards. If the customers save a certain amount they can get a bonus.
“It is a very good savings scheme and it encourages people to try to think about Christmas.”
The card allow customers to save up to £144 with a special £6 bonus.
The grotto has proved popular with children, she said, particularly because many were off school for the summer holidays.
Father Christmas has been dressed in green rather than his more traditional red.
“He has been telling the kids that he doesn’t turn red until Christmas,” the customer services manager said.
The News & Star asked permission to go to the store to photograph Santa in his grotto. But the same customer service manager said that the store did not want any publicity for the saver cards.
Santa’s surprise arrival comes as a cards shop in the city’s Lanes shopping centre has also started selling Christmas cards.
According to their website, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has been receiving “a steady flurry of complaints from irritated and disenchanted consumers objecting to the premature appearance of Christmas adverts.”
The ASA, which does not regulate when adverts appear, has nevertheless received more complaints on this issue this year than ever before.
First published at 10:51, Saturday, 25 August 2012
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk
How to ruin Christmas... We're only just under 4 months from Christmas day and the shops are trying to flog us stuff already, I particulary dislike how Asda is trying to push its saver cards so customers start paying now for the shopping in 4 months!
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Now Matalan has got halloween stuff in and it's 8 weeks off yet. Ridiculous.
Posted by Derek on 6 September 2012 at 08:21