Have yourself a very early Christmas

Wednesday 19 August 2015

The weather may not have been all that summery lately, but it appears Christmas gets earlier every year here in Jersey.

When the box office for Enchanted Narnia, Jersey’s winter wonderland opened 24 July, ‘early bird’ tickets sold out within one day.

Set in the magical land of C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia novels, the experience includes characters from ‘The Lion, the witch and the wardrobe’ such as  Mr Tumnus the faun, and the White Witch.

During the 20-minute tour, children will meet Santa and get a gift, while those lucky enough to score an 'early-bird' ticket will also get a personalised invitation from Santa. 

Further tickets will go on sale 31 August, while the final batch is supposed to go on sale 14 September, more than three months before Christmas.

Father Christmas is not the only person to get people in Jersey to book early this year. The Radisson Blu hotel has been promoting its Boxing Day lunch since 23 July. 

On its facebook page, the hotel urges guests and locals to sort out their post-Christmas plans. It states: “It's never too early for Christmas, why not book yourself a relaxed day after the festivities and join us for our Boxing Day Lunch? We guarantee a relaxed day, you just need to bring the cheer.”

Bohemia launched its 2015 Christmas brochure on the 5 August; although the menus and party packages won't be available until 23 November.  Ormer launched its Christmas lunch and dinner menus the next day. 

On Ormer's twitter feed, in between information about the sun terrace and summer cocktails, you find a reminder Christmas is on its way. “Make sure you reserve your Christmas celebrations at Ormer before we fill up,” they tweet.

Despite a trend for shorter term bookings by many visitors to Jersey, organisers have to plan events a long way in advance to meet publicity deadlines.

A spokesperson for Visit Jersey said: “The further ahead people organise events, the more chance there is that we can help promote them. We have various deadlines for trade and media publications which can seem very early, but if you don't make them, a lot of people will not hear about them.

“We're already doing the brochures for 2016; national media require events lists in January, and even the What's On guide is done three or four months in advance.

“Bookings to the island for December are slightly ahead on last year, and a lot of people who are planning to come to Jersey for Christmas itself will have booked already.”