So, Christmas Is When Exactly?

Royal Mail have managed to excel themselves this year.

Normally, we're sent the posters and leaflets for the last posting dates for Christmas at some point during September. Given that the dates for surface mail for some countries are the beginning of October, this is about right timing-wise. In fact, we pretty much rely on getting these leaflets as a good indication that it's the right time to start putting a few items of Christmas stuff out for sale. It's true to say that I've been taking it for granted that these leaflets will be here at the right time every year and therefore don't really bother to think about putting my Christmas stuff out until I get them.

D'oh!!!

I've started to notice (on the few occasions that I'm let out of here) that some places are starting to get the Christmas tat out already. I hate utterly shops that ram Christmas down your throat from September onwards so I've been delaying putting our stock out. One of my antipodean friends go me thinking though. She mentioned that even though the last date for down under is about three months prior, she always misses it.

"Hmm?" Thinks I, "It's less than three months until Christmas and I've seen hide nor hair of these posting dates. I'll have a look online."

One quick bit of web surfing later and I've found out that the last posting date for Australia was the first of October. Sadly, that was the date for 2008 and that was the most up to date information I could find from the Royal Mail website.

So, first things first, I got Christmas tat corner ready and out on display in the shop.

The next thing to do was try to find the dates. Fortunately, Royal Mail actually beat me to it and sent a memo round to us. However, this memo didn't bother to tell us the dates. It just told us that the leaflets would be delayed until the end of October and could we all stop phoning the helpline to ask about them. It did tell us where we could find the dates so I looked 'em up and here they are for your entertainment and information:

Everywhere in the world not otherwise mentioned:
1st October

Far East and Middle East
6th October

South Africa, Hong Kong, Singapore, USA, Canada
20th October

Eastern Europe, Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, Iceland
10th November

The rest of Europe
24th November

So, to sum up, we won't be telling our customers when the last surface mail posting dates are until nearly all of them have passed. When you consider that no-one ever sends stuff to anywhere in Europe surface mail as it's rarely cheaper and sometimes more expensive than airmail, that's a bit fucking useless really.

Much like Royal Mail really.