How fed up Scotland has gone Christmas crackers!
Tree sales soaring, Mariah Carey rocketing up charts...
IT has been a year that almost everyone would prefer to forget – but defiant Scots are planning a turbo-charged Christmas.
Sales of real trees have soared and festive tunes are already dominating the charts.
Experts said many Boxing Day sales have already begun in earnest, with consumers pledging to spend more this year to make up for months of lockdown.
Behavioural psychologist Padraig Walsh said: ‘This has been a year like no other and it has impacted our resilience and wellbeing.
‘We take comfort in the relative certainty, predictability and ritual of Christmas. Putting up the tree gives us that sense of normality we have had in previous years and crave this festive season.
‘Maybe putting up decorations early is our way of rushing this particular year out of the door.’
Some Scots have had decorations up since last month.
One grandmother in Chapelhall, Lanarkshire, was so keen to get the festive spirit under way that she transformed her home into Santa’s Grotto four months early.
Tina McTavish, 69, whose husband, Drew, was born on Christmas Day, has seven trees in her fivebedroom house and thousands of lights outside. She even splashed out on a snow machine to make her garden more magical.
She said: ‘Everybody calls me Mrs Claus. Families come from miles around to have a look.
‘It’s worth all the effort to see the smiles on their faces.’
Morena Devine, 56, created a spectacular display in Giffnock, Renfrewshire, and spent five days putting up 40 sets of lights and an array of other illuminations.
The mother of five’s display helps raise money for Second Chances German Shepherd Rescue.
Elsewhere, residents of Prestonpans, East Lothian, and Hamilton, Lanarkshire, also put on dazzling displays of festive fun.
Iain Fleming, 35, decked out his Hamilton home with 25,000 lights, as part of a ten-year tradition that has raised £9,000 for charity.
Across the UK, sales of real trees are expected to rise from eight million in 2019 to ten million this year.
The British Christmas Tree Growers Association said there has already been a 24 per cent increase in sales year-on-year.
And while a traditional complaint is the barrage of festive tunes in the weeks before December 25, this year has seen a surge in popularity for Christmas favourites.
Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas is already at number two in the official charts and returned to streaming service Spotify’s top 40 last Sunday, as did six other festive songs, including The Pogues’ Fairytale of New York and Michael Bublé’s It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas.
Between them, they have already clocked up 500,000 daily plays.
Last year, Britons spent an average of £1,116 on Christmas, but that is expected to rise as people spoil family members they can finally see again. Research by money. co.uk found each of us plan to spend £965 this year on presents alone.
Retail expert Richard Hyman said: ‘The bulk of sales will start before Christmas and many have begun. Store closures has meant a build-up of stock, so it’s discounts all the way.’