Christmas In August

When I first worked on magazines, I’d be invited to “Christmas In July” events where I’d traipse round central London venues looking at snow globes, tree decorations and new iterations on the festive mince pie. It was very discombobulating, but also useful, because our lead times were such that we’d be working on Christmas issues months before the first strains of All I Want For Christmas would be heard. 

More recently, the calendar has shifted: these days, I’m invited to Christmas in August events or, more commonly, sent product information by email, since in-house events are still in decline. This week in particular I’ve been deluged, despite them being of little use to me, since the bulk of my commissions come from short-lead platforms, specifically newspapers. Pointless as it is to fill my inbox with information I won’t need until December, I’d rather be included in the mail-out than not. We’re all swamped by information these days, but most journalists would rather skim read and delete a superfluous email than risk missing out on a new product or a brilliant launch entirely. Since more journalists than ever are self-employed and work across multiple platforms, my advice would be to keep sending those Christmas in August emails, but also to resend them nearer the time. For many people, Christmas will only ever be in December.