GAY BUT COSTLY XMAS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 89, Issue 278, 24 November 1945, Page 5

GAY BUT COSTLY XMAS

PREDICTION FOR BRITAIN (Special Correspondent—N.Z.P.A.) London, Nov. 21 “Merry and pricey” would seem to be the appropriate slogan for Britain's first peacetime Christmas since 1938. With hundreds of thousands of men and women home for the first time in there will be convivial celebrations throughout the country and though it is estimated that only one in three families will be able to have the traditional turkey, extra rations will be made available by the Ministry of Food. It is also stated that a certain amount of liquor, such as gin, is being reserved for the Christmas trade. Canned plum puddings will be on sale as soon as dried fruit is in good supply and as mincemeat is on the preserved ration there should, as .a schoolboy remarked, be a satisfying amount of “good pud” available. Tinned foods, custard .powder and fresh fruit are scarce and likely to be scarcer. DEARTH OF PRESENTS Presents will be something of a problem and there is such a dearth that many shops are relying on secondhand goods, lhe run on gold, silver, jewellery and antiques is lively. Handbags, handkerchiefs, . lingerie, boxed toilet sets and such other items that used to be classified as “useful gifts” are difficult to find, and even when tracked down they are expensive. Minute diaries are selling at Ils, dyed rabbit fur gloves at three guineas painted wooden tea trays at five ees and hats range in price upwards from lOi guineas. . There is an im'mense variety of plastic brooches, clips, earrings, brackets and ornaments of all kinds, which range in price from a few shillings to guineas. Christmas cards selling freely guineas and hats range in price upwards tom lOi guineas. Toys •are more plentiful than in recent years and they are of better material but they also are highly priced, stuffed dolls fetching 17s and model unworkable trains one guinea. That there is money available is shown by the fact that street hawkers ask and get double the prices marked in the shops for the same toys. To date there has been no pronounced rush for Christmas shopping but it is expected to be intensified any day now. As with everything in Britain to-day, there will be a note of austerity about Christmas but reunions will make for eaiety and it is certain that there will be no abatement of the boom in the entertainment world.