The Aardvark Blog

Christmas 2015
18/12/2015

And so just like that it ended. The great flood of online Christmas orders suddenly ebbed away, and order numbers returned to a more normal quantity. All this week we have been posting most orders first class, so I hope that even today's orders will arrive in time for the big day.

I think it would be fair to say that this year Christmas arrived a little later and carried on for longer than previous years. I was called by the Bookseller Magazine yesterday and asked to comment on Christmas in the bookshop, and my          impression is that most other bookshops are reporting a similar trend. I always wonder why some Christmases like last year arrive earlier, whilst some are such dreadful laggards. We are unusual amongst bookshops in that although very useful, Christmas sales do not represent a disproportionate amount of our turnover for the year. Our biggest sales months tend to be May and August, as befits our somewhat peculiar character. I do wonder whether the ridiculously warm weather has been responsible for delaying peoples interest in all things Christmas. Certainly it  is hard to concentrate on mulled wine and ho, ho, ho, when  the daffodils are already sprouting. Let us hope that we don't pay for it with a hideous February.

To repeat our seasonal notice, we are open everyday apart from the 25th and 26th of December and 1st of January. So if you have any last minute shopping , you know where to come.

Yesterday we had the Aardvark Christmas lunch in the wonderful Jolly Frog Restaurant, just up the road from him in Leintwardine. I had the traditional lunch which was excellent, but most of the rest went for fish for their main courses and the Chocolate Tart for pudding ( it did look a very good choice). Many thanks to Ann, Tony and Lettice for holding the fort whilst we were away. We are very fortunate for having a number of excellent places to eat in our immediate vicinity, so if you are after somewhere to have a meal this Christmas why not try the Frog, or the Lion ( also at Leintwardine), or the wonderful Milebrook Hotel ( mid way between Brampton Bryan and Knighton.