GOOSE Fair has gone and the weather has turned. That can mean only one thing – in Britain, it's Christmas.
Nottingham's two big shopping centres have yet to start piping Ding Dong Merrily On High around the malls but already there are signs throughout the city centre that a little Christmas spending will be welcome.
And now. Even during the autumn mid-season sales.
Clinton Cards, whose Solihull branch was criticised for unveiling its festive display during the school summer holidays, has £39.99 "Snowing Christmas Trees" stacked in its Victoria Centre store.
A chunk of the furnishings floor of Nottingham's John Lewis is stocked with trees, cards and seasonal decorations.
The Three Crowns, Jamie's Italian and Tamatanga are among the catering establishments with A-boards advertising their Christmas fare.
And if you like to get your gifts boxed and ribboned a fortnight before the end of British Summer Time, you'll find yards of festive wrap in the Clumber Street windows of Poundland.
BHS, often an early leader in the Nottingham Christmas shopping stakes, has giant paper holly leaves and berries suspended from the ceiling of its Broadmarsh store and posters reminding their customers: "'Tis the season to be jolly."
'Tis also the season for a liverish response if you like your Christmas to happen at... well, Christmas, actually.
Which begs the question, if December 25 is the first day of the religious festival of Christmas, what is an appropriate first day for the seemingly-endless commercial festival of Christmas?
Early August, according to management at the Bybrook Barn, in Ashford, Kent – later forced by customer protests to haul down the Christmas tree put up 140 days before the event. November 15, according to Intu, owner of the Victoria and Broadmarsh Centres. That's when the grotto is expected to open on the upper deck of the former mall and a children's "digital experience" at the latter. Details have yet to be finalised.
At John Lewis, whose Victoria Centre store is Nottingham's biggest shop, head of branch Amanda Dammers said: "Our Christmas shop launches at the same time every year. As winter approaches, inevitably thoughts turn to the festive season.
"Christmas was also our most popular search term online from early September, so we know that our customers like to get a head-start with their preparations."
Ms Dammers was speaking on the day city council workmen began putting up Nottingham's Christmas lights. Don't worry – they won't actually be switched on until November 21.
Geoff Williams, representing the independent retailers who are members of Nottingham's Business Improvement District (BID), reinforced the point that customers dictate retail practices.
"In the United States, Christmas shopping was traditionally not done before Thanksgiving," he said. That holiday, a thanksgiving for the year's harvest, is celebrated in the US on the fourth Thursday in November.
"Over here we have moved the way customers want us to," Mr Williams said.
"There is an early surge of people who want to get things organised and buy their gifts now. You get a bit of a lull and then it's the second group – mostly male – who hate the whole business and leave it to the end.
"Retailers are always accused of being too commercially-minded – but it's not just the retailers. Clearly the customers are thinking that way, too.
"Browsing early gives people the chance to think about a purchase, then go back a couple of weeks later and buy it. Leave it to the last minute and the item may not be there."
Nottingham traders hope to build on the progress of last Christmas, when 1.97 million shoppers visited the city centre in the four weeks before Christmas week – an increase of four per cent and a further sign that the UK was slowly emerging from its seven-year economic slump.
Reporting a six per cent year-on-year rise in sales, Amanda Dammers credited last December's commitment from all retailers to stay open late. Cut-price parking was another factor.
However, independents' spokesman Geoff Williams, looking back on the downturn, says: "There is still a lot of ground to make up. The other thing is that people are being a bit more sensible with their spending."
The traditionalists may not like it but a long lead-in to Christmas is permanently blocked into retail accountants' diaries.
As the writer Katharine Whitehorn once concluded: "From a commercial point of view, if Christmas did not exist it would be necessary to invent it."
