I HAVE just been looking for a birthday card in a card shop in Bromsgrove High Street, and was dismayed to find half of the shop was given over to Christmas cards on September 13!

A few weeks earlier, in August, I noticed a hotel on the Redditch Road was advertising ‘Celebrate Christmas in style’.

I wonder how many people agree with me that this sort of behaviour actually makes Christmas less pleasurable because by the time it arrives, I'm heartily sick of the subject!

I'm not a Scrooge but this race by retailers to be the first to sell us Christmas goods needs to stop.

No cards, wrappings, or other Christmas related trivia in the shops until November 1 – at the earliest – would help make Christmas special once more.

David Price, Marlbrook