One of the time honoured Christmas traditions to be killed by consumerism and the credit crunch is the annual ritual of queuing for the January sales.

Every year the Boxing Day news bulletins would feature a story about greedy little people turning up outside Harrods and other big stores with their tents, sleeping bags, camping stoves, extra woollies, a weeks supply of snack foods and a glint of steely determination in their eye. They wanted to be first in line when the doors opened on January 2nd, to get into the store and buy something they neither wanted nor needed simply for the sake of it’s being marked down to a bargain basement price because nobody wanted it or needed it.

Such a triumph may seem a hollow victory but to some people queuing for the opening of the sales WAS their Christmas. The sales to them were as much about companionship, shared experience, shared pot noodles and jolly old sing songs as the snow settled on their bobble hats.

(For anyone who has wondered where these people go when they need a wee, our investigative reporter on the scene will be calling in a bulletin soon.)

January sales may be part of the social season to some suburbanites but to the shops they represent a chance to shift all the dreck before people totally max out their credit cards. Thus as conspicuous Christmas consumerism became more rampant the shops had to move the sales forward to start on Boxing Day. Although the change made it necessary to camp out on the pavement throughout the Christmas holiday.

Such an inconvenience did not deter the bargain hunters, on December 21st as we pagans celebrated the symbolic death and resurrection of our livers, the January sale fans were on the pavement, insulated from the worst weather of the year by their dreams of getting a Christian Dior soup tureen for 25 pence.

This year things were even worse. The credit crunch made stores so desperate for cashflow goods were being discounted by up to 90% on November 5th . Early arrivals armed with survival kits were greeted by signs saying “Next January Sale begins on the Autumn equinox, 2009.

This has destroyed many peoples’ holiday and some people’s hopes of a better, brighter future.

So far Boggart Blog has had no reports of suicides but we will be manning the news desk twenty four hours a day and will keep you informed.

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