Don't forget to buy local this Christmas

Christmas is on our doorsteps. This is a time when the exile thinks especially of making their way home: long journeys; old memories; the best of days. There are few enough in our region who do not see that old ESB advertisement they always show at this time of year, and smile, and maybe push a tear from the corner of the eye. I think I’m coming back to the place I loved so well, in my youth: indeed.

That ad worked so well is because it shows the build-up to the moment when the light goes on outside the house where you were reared. Every person who has lived away has a favourite memory of just such a trip home for Christmas – the excitement of the journey, but also the sheer sense of relief at finally arriving. My own favourite memory is of flying into Knock from Luton one bitterly cold winter night in the run-up to Christmas. The light went on for me that day that’s for sure, the end point of a journey that had started in South London at 6am. A day that never went by so pleasantly.

Not everyone can make the journey home every year. They will join the Christmas table only on FaceTime or WhatsApp, passed around from one seat to the other, exchanging greetings. This year, like every year, there will be west of Ireland people doing that from Melbourne and Mumbai and Manchester and Marino. Some others will be making the journey and arriving over the next few days. Those lucky few – our band of brothers and sisters – will fill Ireland West Airport with joy in these days leading up to Christmas.

But whether you can come home in person or just in spirit, this article is an appeal to all readers living outside the region. In years gone by, we all know how much the influx of emigrants returning home mattered to the shops and pubs of the district. Everyone talks of those days with a warm glow: full pubs; old tills in grand old draperies ringing; and every business getting enough to pay the rates and more. It kept many a family until the following Christmas.

How the commercial life of our communities has changed since then. So many of the smaller, family-run shops are no more. The decline in the number of pubs is an old story at this stage. E-commerce, home delivery, social media; they have changed the world.

But the same commercial dynamic that helped out businesses in the West of Ireland for generations has not. A successful Christmas in terms of sales remains a vital transfusion for our commercial sector. So, if you have not yet bought your presents – or a particular present – for Christmas, you can do something good for your local community. And you don’t need to be walking down Pearse Street or Market Street or Bridge Street or the main street of your own local town to do it.

For if you need a last-minute present for someone at home, why not order it from a local business in your home town? It will be, as they say, a quiet January. There isn’t much to fill the bag after that and that is especially so for the smaller family-type businesses that are still keeping their flag flying in towns across our region.

In every town and village, such businesses are fighting to survive. And they no longer need you to step over their doorstep to help them do it - many will now allow you to order online and many more will deliver for you, some in the boot of their own car.

And it is businesses and enterprising people of all types who will benefit. There are local bookshops who would be only delighted to get your order however it comes into them. There are cake makers who would smile at the ping of an online order. There are beauticians and hairdressers who would honour your voucher until their last day. There are music schools and dance and yoga teachers who would be only too delighted to see your niece or nephew come through the door as a result of your kindness. This newspaper would be delighted to sell you a subscription that would keep a relative far away connected to home or which might entertain a house-bound relative. You might order a nice bottle of something, or it could be a hamper, or a Sunday roast. It could be a driving lesson or two for a young person who needs to get into gear. And if you fancy something even more thoughtful, there is no nicer surprise present than to leave the price of two drinks or a coffee and cake in a place you know a loved one likes to go – and especially when it would do them good to get out and about again. You might send a few euro to the local chapter of the Society of St Vincent de Paul, in honour of someone who was kind to you when you needed it.

Now, the flow of presents wasn’t of course all one-way traffic. In times gone by, turkeys and cakes going the other way to relatives abroad was a Christmas tradition to match any other. We don’t have so much of that now, but sending some local produce abroad is a tradition we should certainly continue to foster. And that is true for West of Ireland people whether they live at home or away. In my experience, people from anywhere in Ireland and further afield love getting a present from the home place of a person they know. So that could be salmon from the Moy, or whiskey distilled locally, or any of the distinctively west of Ireland products which we have become so good at producing and marketing. And in this social media world, the benefit of one of those presents can be felt very strongly if the receiver posts about them on their own channels.

Now it is of course true that people talk about too much commercialism at Christmas. We are awash with frivolity and excess. But when you do want to send a token of your esteem, you can esteem yourself by supporting someone local when you do it. Reaching back home to spread that cheer is a practical manifestation of our love of people but also of place, something we naturally cling to at times like this.

So if you haven’t already, think about that small little business at home that would be delighted to have your custom. If some presents are not yet secured, have a little think about how you might support the place you have loved so well, by buying from home, no matter how far you are away this Christmas. Be in no doubt that when that present lands on the doorstep, a very special light will always turn on. Happy Christmas.