"Christmas" decorations on Grafton Street

jahalpin

I was on Grafton Street earlier and was very dissapointed with the decorations in the street

They are just cheap chandeliers strung accross the street, they are not festive at all and are pretty crap

Is the whole street now going the way of BT with their totally non-festive Christmas displays

Any thoughts?

Toby Take a Bow

Are they different from last year's? I think Grafton Street try and have 'classy' decorations, which usually means not very festive. They can look nice when they're all lit up though.

jahalpin

Toby Take a Bow wrote: »

Are they different from last year's? I think Grafton Street try and have 'classy' decorations, which usually means not very festive. They can look nice when they're all lit up though.

They are probably the same as last years, but most people need more cheering up this year and festive decorations would probably help

Richard Hillman

I was on the bus going by Grafton Street earlier and when the 4 tourists in front of me seen up the street from the bus they were in awe. It seems to have done the trick.

Hill St Blue

Like them or not, cheap they ain't...they value at €15k each I'm told (they're rented apparently.)

_blank_

I hate Brown Thomas and their commercial window displays.

BRING BACK SWITZERS!!!!

texidub

jahalpin wrote: »

They are probably the same as last years, but most people need more cheering up this year and festive decorations would probably help

They --retailers and the corpo, I assume?-- should put festive decorations to cheer you up? You are easily pleased. Maybe you should cheer yourself up and not rely on sparkly lights to save your well being!

neris

Des wrote: »

I hate Brown Thomas and their commercial window displays.

BRING BACK SWITZERS!!!!

Seconded .The Brown Thomas window is a display in over priced designer wares with no xmas cheer or theme.

Flukey

The terrible thing about the Grafton Street decorations is that they are up. It is the 21st of November. Why on earth would anyone want Christmas decorations up at this time of year? Wait until the 1st of December... and even that is a bit early. I love Christmas, but it is not even near it yet. It would be much more magical if they started it later. Seeing Christmas decorations and hearing Christmas songs so early annoys most people, not put them into a festive spirit. "Oh God, not already!" is the reaction of most people when they hear their first Christmas songs being played in shops, even from people who absolutely love Christmas. There would be a much more positive reaction if they started later.

When will the vast majority of people do the vast majority of their Christmas shopping? In those final few days, about the 18th to 25th of December. Will we do our Christmas shopping? Yes. So no matter when decorations go up or advertising starts, we will do our Christmas shopping, so the shops will get their business anyway. We are not going to do any more shopping because the decorations are up now or advertising started weeks ago. So the shops won't lose money by waiting until at least the 1st of December. In fact, they'd save money by not doing all that needless advertising in September, October and November.

The other side of it is that you start seeing decorations coming down and Christmas trees being thrown out from about the 27th of December. Although we've been hearing the 12 Days of Christmas being sung for weeks, people suddenly forget that Christmas lasts that long. People start asking you "How was your Christmas?" as early as the 26th of December. I always answer "Not too bad, so far." After all it is only getting started, so you can't say how it was until after it is finished. So we have the crazy situation of people starting Christmas way before it begins, and ending it long before if finishes.

Christmas is wonderful, but let's wait until near Christmas before we start it and then let it go on throughout Christmas. For a change, it would be lovely to have Christmas, during Christmas. So when you see people on the 7th of January, then you can start to ask "How was your Christmas?"

hardCopy

neris wrote: »

Seconded .The Brown Thomas window is a display in over priced designer wares with no xmas cheer or theme.

What's the Kilkenny Shop one like? Someone told me they've gone a for a proper Christmas window look but I haven't seen it yet.

CBFi

I think they're thinking is to get the lights up early and get people into the shops. I hope it works. Alot of the smaller retailers cant afford another bad Christmas! Annoying it is, but it probably works!

I think the Grafton street decorations are really nice- in keeping with the standard of the street. Tinsel it isnt (thank god).

neris

Flukey wrote: »

The terrible thing about the Grafton Street decorations is that they are up."

I saw a christmas tree all lite up on a saturday night in an apartment. thought that was bad retailers i can kind of understand

Flukey

CBFi wrote: »

I think they're thinking is to get the lights up early and get people into the shops. I hope it works. Alot of the smaller retailers cant afford another bad Christmas! Annoying it is, but it probably works!

Yes, but the point is that the shops will get our money, whether we give it to them on the 21st of November or the 21st of December. So they are not going to lose out. If they are going to have a bad Christmas, then they are going to have a bad Christmas, but those of us that will be spending will spend that money at some point. December the 24th is the busiest shopping day of the year, so we don't need advertising about it in September, October or even November. The shopkeepers should keep that advertising expense in the business, because the vast majority of it is wasted.

compsys

jahalpin wrote: »

I was on Grafton Street earlier and was very dissapointed with the decorations in the street

They are just cheap chandeliers strung accross the street, they are not festive at all and are pretty crap

Is the whole street now going the way of BT with their totally non-festive Christmas displays

Any thoughts?

I have to say I totally disagree with you. I think the Xmas lights on Grafton Street and around Dublin in general are lovely and are a huge improvement on what we used to have. It's one of the few recent things that DCC have done that they can be truly commended for.

Also, as another poster above said, the lights really seem to be working judging by the reaction of all the tourists who are taking photos of them.

The ones on Henry St are lovely too.

gigino

I saw the ones in Grafton st earlier. They should wait another week or 2 before putting up lights ....its no length since Haloween.

Corruptedmorals

Flukey wrote: »

The terrible thing about the Grafton Street decorations is that they are up. It is the 21st of November. Why on earth would anyone want Christmas decorations up at this time of year? Wait until the 1st of December... and even that is a bit early. I love Christmas, but it is not even near it yet. It would be much more magical if they started it later. Seeing Christmas decorations and hearing Christmas songs so early annoys most people, not put them into a festive spirit. "Oh God, not already!" is the reaction of most people when they hear their first Christmas songs being played in shops, even from people who absolutely love Christmas. There would be a much more positive reaction if they started later.

When will the vast majority of people do the vast majority of their Christmas shopping? In those final few days, about the 18th to 25th of December. Will we do our Christmas shopping? Yes. So no matter when decorations go up or advertising starts, we will do our Christmas shopping, so the shops will get their business anyway. We are not going to do any more shopping because the decorations are up now or advertising started weeks ago. So the shops won't lose money by waiting until at least the 1st of December. In fact, they'd save money by not doing all that needless advertising in September, October and November.

The other side of it is that you start seeing decorations coming down and Christmas trees being thrown out from about the 27th of December. Although we've been hearing the 12 Days of Christmas being sung for weeks, people suddenly forget that Christmas lasts that long. People start asking you "How was your Christmas?" as early as the 26th of December. I always answer "Not too bad, so far." After all it is only getting started, so you can't say how it was until after it is finished. So we have the crazy situation of people starting Christmas way before it begins, and ending it long before if finishes.

Christmas is wonderful, but let's wait until near Christmas before we start it and then let it go on throughout Christmas. For a change, it would be lovely to have Christmas, during Christmas. So when you see people on the 7th of January, then you can start to ask "How was your Christmas?"

Not really how it works in practice. I've worked three Christmasses in a very busy retail department store and just entering the fourth now in a much smaller branch. People ARE motivated to buy by christmas music and decorations and stock...not everyone buys in the last week. Not just because of temptation, but also because of people spacing out the cost. I often hear customers in september mentioning their purchases are for christmas. December is something else altogether, especially the last few days, but loads of stuff sells in November. For everyone who gets annoyed by seeing christmas stuff in shops in November, another few are quietly buying it. If they made no sales in November the stuff would not be there. Also it would be fairly impossible to get all of the christmas stock needed in the much tighter timeframe you're suggesting without seriously running out before the day..the way store's budgets work, it needs to be spaced out anyway. They would lose a huge amount of sales and money if they ran out of stuff and couldn't get it ordered back in on time. You may be sure the way it's done now they're not losing money that they don't stand to massively regain.

SteoL

Flukey wrote: »

The terrible thing about the Grafton Street decorations is that they are up. It is the 21st of November. Why on earth would anyone want Christmas decorations up at this time of year? Wait until the 1st of December... and even that is a bit early. I love Christmas, but it is not even near it yet. It would be much more magical if they started it later. Seeing Christmas decorations and hearing Christmas songs so early annoys most people, not put them into a festive spirit. "Oh God, not already!" is the reaction of most people when they hear their first Christmas songs being played in shops, even from people who absolutely love Christmas. There would be a much more positive reaction if they started later.

When will the vast majority of people do the vast majority of their Christmas shopping? In those final few days, about the 18th to 25th of December. Will we do our Christmas shopping? Yes. So no matter when decorations go up or advertising starts, we will do our Christmas shopping, so the shops will get their business anyway. We are not going to do any more shopping because the decorations are up now or advertising started weeks ago. So the shops won't lose money by waiting until at least the 1st of December. In fact, they'd save money by not doing all that needless advertising in September, October and November.

The other side of it is that you start seeing decorations coming down and Christmas trees being thrown out from about the 27th of December. Although we've been hearing the 12 Days of Christmas being sung for weeks, people suddenly forget that Christmas lasts that long. People start asking you "How was your Christmas?" as early as the 26th of December. I always answer "Not too bad, so far." After all it is only getting started, so you can't say how it was until after it is finished. So we have the crazy situation of people starting Christmas way before it begins, and ending it long before if finishes.

Christmas is wonderful, but let's wait until near Christmas before we start it and then let it go on throughout Christmas. For a change, it would be lovely to have Christmas, during Christmas. So when you see people on the 7th of January, then you can start to ask "How was your Christmas?"

I suspect most people will try finish their Christmas shopping before 6th December this year! Mine is almost finished