Before I start today’s tale, I must tell you about something that has just happened when I was getting dressed.

It was one of those ’I’ll never do that again’ things that we all do now and again, such as putting your jumper on inside out or, even worse, putting your underpants on inside out. The latter can have awkward implications for obvious reasons.

But my latest moment was a first.

I put both socks on the same foot.

I use one of those gadgets that you slide the sock on first and then slide your foot into the pre-stretched sock and pull the whole thing over the waiting foot.

You can only do one foot at a time, which I did, but I had put both of them on to the same foot.

I only realised my mistake after a long search for the missing sock.

Anyway. Is it just me or does Christmas really come earlier each year?

This year, it was the last week in October when the first hints appeared in the television adverts.

I know that to many folk, Christmas is an important part of their business plan, and competition in the market place is fierce, but to see a Christmas tree twinkling away before the clocks go back is just a bit too much too soon.

To all of us in retail, from the days when I worked in Strand Street, the Christmas trade was absolutely essential.

It literally was make-or-break for many small businesses.

For us shopkeepers, the old adage of shop early for Christmas had a whole new meaning. The manufacturers and the wholesalers who supplied the shops such as ours, started knocking on our doors from August onwards.

The knack was not only knowing what we should buy to display in our windows, we also had to know what was going to be this year’s ’must have’.

If you had got it right, the feeling was fantastic, but if you had got it wrong, it would most certainly spoil your Christmas, not to mention spoiling your cash flow.

Cash flow was the retailer’s nightmare.

In the old days, our trade suppliers would be largely based in London or Birmingham, and were mostly family run businesses and their problems were the same as ours, only bigger.

As do all small retailers in whatever is their trade, you have to carry enough stock to see you through the busy times.

But enough of this moaning and groaning. I have to say that I enjoyed every one of my 35 years or thereabouts in retail. I worked with some fantastic colleagues and met many new friends from all walks of life.

But I was supposed to be talking about the cynical viewpoint that some folk have about Christmas being invented by shopkeepers.

Forgive me if you’ve heard this tale before, but to my mind, it really sums things up.

Some time ago, we were on holiday in Cyprus and Brown Eyes spotted this advert for a three-day cruise to the Holy Land, and off we went.

Now during your time on Earth, you are sure to be taken in by someone offering you something that is just too good to be true, and this was one example of just that.

On day one, our three-day cruise departed from Cyprus at 7pm and sailed overnight to Port Said.

On day two we left the ship by coach for a five-hour drive to Bethlehem to arrive at our first stop, Lama Brothers’ gift shop on time to enjoy an hour or so browsing amongst the souvenirs.

Our ’personal guide’ then directed us to the place where Jesus was born and then to where our bus would be waiting to whisk us back to the ship, which was another five hours. That was day two. We docked at Cyprus at 7 am.

That was day three.

I can only agree with the cynics. Only a shopkeeper could have thought of that.

A decade ago Pullyman - aka Michael Cowin - was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease, a condition that affects people in different ways. Michael discovered writing and Island Life is featuring some of his musings. Sometimes topical, sometimes nostalgic, read about life as seen through the eyes of Pullyman