By Stephen Blease

Last updated 13:22, Monday, 17 November 2008

No sooner do the shops clear the Halloween and Bonfire Night displays from their windows than they start filling them with Christmas paraphernalia.

And a good thing too. We all need something to cheer us up during the coldest, darkest time of the year.

Yet there are those who disagree. With a recession looming, and the credit crunch biting almost as hard as the wintry weather, some people are proposing that this Christmas should be less extravagant than other years.

But I really hope people pay no attention to this advice, whatever economic problems we face.

Of course we may need to cut back on certain things – but Christmas shouldn’t be one of them.

The festive season has a definite economic benefit. It helps keep shops and restaurants, and those who work in them, afloat over the winter downturn in business.

It also brings benefits to our general well-being. It keeps us cheerful during the gloomiest time of the year. It provides children, especially, with something to look forward to. At the very least it gives most of us a few days off work and it engenders a general feeling of peace and goodwill – which can’t be a bad thing.

But it is no exaggeration to fear for the future of Christmas, for there have always been Scrooges out there.

Oliver Cromwell tried to ban it. Jehovah’s Witnesses also oppose it, as they don’t believe in celebrating what was a pagan winter festival in origin.

The puritans who came to prominence in Scotland during the 1600s also disapproved of it, and even used to send out “kirk spies” to ensure people weren’t taking the day off. Some historians believe that is why the Scots started celebrating New Year in such a big way.

So Christmas is important. It serves as a kind of full-stop to the year.

To slide straight from December 2008 into January 2009 without pause for breath would be far too depressing.