There comes a time right after the new year when the retail sector decides it’s done with fairy lights and sparkles. Out goes the party food, the bao buns with Santa hats, the mixed platters of prosciutto and cheese, the gift sets of flavoured olive oil and the festive cheeseboards. On the discount rails there are scarlet jumpers with diamante and slinky party frocks, looking less and less inviting by the day. Back comes the sleek minimalism of the retail sector in its most pared down aspect as it flogs low-carb, low-calorie ready meals and fitness gear in time for the great ‘new year, new you’ personal transformation.
Dry January, coming bang in the middle of the Twelve Days of Christmas, should be seen as an anti-Christian initiative, odium fidei in the form of teetotalism
Depressing, no? But then we’ve been in party mode since about the last week of November – actually, the decorations have been on sale since before Halloween – so there may be a sense in which people are done with the whole Christmas thing.
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